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I 

I 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Pilgrimages to 
Methodist Shrines 



By 

William Henry Meredith 

Of the New England Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND PYE 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



-** 

■ .vA^ 

the library of 
congress, 

Two Copies Received 

MAY 27 1903 

Copyright Entry 

(X W 6 t - I °[ $ 
CLASS EC XXc No. 

8- £ 14- / 
COPY B. 



COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY 
JENNINGS AND PYE 



BeMcatorp 



TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES 
IN MASSACHUSETTS; 

Namely, Wesley, Salem ; First, Northampton ; 
Saint Paul's, Lynn; First, Stoneham; State 
Street, Springfield ; First, Everett ; and Boston 
Highlands, Boston, by whose generous leaves of 
absence, at intervals between July, 1878, and 
October, 1901, these seven pilgrimages were 
made possible, these pages are gratefully ded- 
icated by a lover of Methodist History, and 
their former pastor, 

WILLIAM HENRY MEREDITH 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Prefatory, 9 

Off to Epworth, - 13 

Tracking the Forerunner of Methodism, - 26 

Gloucester, the Sunday-school City, - - 32 

Chatterton — Poet, "Mad Genius," and White- 
field, Preacher, - ... . . . 38 

John Wesley's First and Last Open-air Sermons, 45 

klngswood, and methodism's first school, - 52 

John Wesley's First Methodist Circuit, - 61 

The First Methodist Church in the World, - 67 

Tickings of an Old Methodist Clock, - - 74 

John Wesley and Bishop Butler, - - 82 

John Wesley and the Bullfight, - 92 

John Wesley and the Dude, - - - - 98 

The Bridal Home of Charles Wesley Discovered, 104 

The Evolution of Methodism's First Bishop — I, 112 

The Evolution of Methodism's First Bishop — II, 119 

Bishop Coke — An Important Correction — A 

Small Collection, 126 

7 



Contents 

Pagb 



Historic Ordinations by John Wesley, - 137 

In the Footsteps of Methodism's Greatest Com- 
mentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, - - - 144 

Our Soldier Founder's Mausoleum, - - 151 

Approaching the Methodist Cathedral, - - 159 

The Cathedral of Methodism and John Wesley' s 

House, -165 

John Wesley's Swan Song of Freedom, and Home 

Bringing to Die, 178 

John Wesley's First London Chapel, - - 190 

A Great Sight of London, - - - - 198 

Carrying Live "Coals to Newcastle," - 205 

A Pre-Methodist Father — The Venerable Bede, 21 1 

Old York and Early Methodism, - - - 217 

Red-hot Methodism, 224 

American Methodist Historic Shrines, - 236 

The Oldest Methodist Church in America — 

1 769-1896, - - 244 

A Visit to The Grave of a Methodist Apostle, 254 

Headsprings of Methodist Literature. 

I — English, 263 

Headsprings of Methodist Literature. 

II — American, 271 

Appendix, 279 

8 



PREFATORY 



Nearly all the matter in the following pages 
has already appeared in our leading Methodist 
periodicals. Repeated requests that we "book" 
the articles have come from readers, the judg- 
ment of many of whom, in such matters, we 
could not question. The writer, not being a 
bookmaker, but a Methodist preacher and pas- 
tor who loves his Church and is intensely in- 
terested in its history, has found his high- 
est pleasure and greatest recreation in going 
back, as far as possible to him, to original 
sources of its history, and in visiting places 
on both sides of the Atlantic made memorable 
by associations with its earliest preachers and 
events. 

With no attempt at literary finish or thought 
9 



Prefatory 

of "style," but with a sincere effort to enable 
the reader to see, through his eyes, and to 
awaken in him an interest in the matchless his- 
tory of Methodism, is the author's sole reason 
for recommitting these pages to the press. 

"The New England Methodist Historical Society," 
36 Bromfield, Street, Boston, Mass. 

September i, 1902. 



10 



grimages to Methodist Shrines 



OFF TO EPWORTH 



The Ep worth League Movement has carried 
the name of this little English town into hun- 
dreds of thousands of homes in the United 
States and Canada. Generations yet to come 
will look to it as the center whence radiated 
holy influences which are yet to touch the 
whole human race, for the Epworth parish in- 
cludes the world. little do the people of that 
prosy little town, five miles from a railroad, 
know how many transatlantic eyes are being 
turned that way, although they have begun to 
think something is happening by the increas- 
ing list of American visitors and their profound 
interest in the old parish church and rectory. 
It has become a shrine to which unsuperstitious 
people wend their steps in order to see the 
little place which, like Bethlehem, Eisenach, 
Mt. Vernon, or Salisbury, N. H., has been 
lifted out of obscurity by one who was born 
there. Soon the English guide-books and maps 
must include it, and encyclopaedias must speak 

13 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



more fully of it and the illustrious ones who 
have made it famous. After two trips to Eng- 
land since 1878, without visiting Epworth, a 
fresh dip into Methodist history awakened a 
very strong desire to see it, and to revisit other 
Methodist shrines which had been so full of 
interest on previous occasions. The League 
Movement makes such a visit necessary to 
Methodist tourists. By calling the attention 
of our people, especially of our young people, 
to our marvelous history, it is destined to be 
of incalculable help to our Church. The Eng- 
lish theological schools have recently added to 
their curriculums a distinct department of 
Methodist history. 

One of the "Fernley Lectures" before the 
British Wesleyan Conference was on "The 
Mission of Methodism." Possibly a larger 
space for Methodism in the ecclesiastical his- 
tory work at Boston, Drew, Evanston, etc., 
would, by demonstrating our true apostolic 
success-i'cm, weld our theologues more firmly to 
the Church in which they found conversion 
and education. 

The most direct way to Epworth from Scot- 
land or London is to take "The Flying Scots- 

14 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



man," after booking for Doncaster. From 
either way you change at Grantham, in Lin- 
colnshire, where Sir Isaac Newton fitted for 
college, and proceed to Doncaster, where you 
must change and rebook for Haxey, which is 
the railroad station nearest to Epworth. The 
trip can easily be made from York by way of 
Doncaster. After visiting Newcastle-on-Tyne 
and its Methodist shrines, and on our way 
down to Bristol, the Mecca of organized Meth- 
odism, and Kingswood, the scene of its first 
triumphs among the masses, and the site of 
its first school, we stopped at York to change 
for Doncaster. A prominent Wesleyan min- 
ister of the city could not tell me how far it 
was to Epworth, nor the way thither, although 
for nearly three years he had been living within 
twenty-five miles of the old town. "What ones 
you Americans are," said he, "for historic 
places !" My native modesty forbade my tell- 
ing him the reason why. 

At seven o'clock of a Saturday morning in 
July we set out from York, in the pouring rain, 
to see Epworth. Soon Doncaster was reached, 
and the slow, "pokey" train for Haxey was 
taken, which set us down there at 8.45 A. M. 

15 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



The 'bus for Epworth not meeting that train, 
we had to wait until the next arrived, at about 
ten o'clock. We sought breakfast at the little 
"inn," which was just opened for the day's 
business, but found we could get nothing but 
bread and cheese and beer. We chose the 
former, and a company of mechanics, who had 
just stepped off the same train for a day's fish- 
ing in the neighborhood, chose the beer. While 
regaling themselves they suggested a pilgrim- 
age to Epworth, where "good awld John Wes- 
ley was born." This arose from my inquiries 
of the "landlady" behind the bar as to the way 
thither, and persons to whom I had introduc- 
tions when I reached it. Presently the two- 
horse herdic, as we would call it, but 'bus it 
was, rolled into the yard, and in it two of the 
very gentlemen to whom I had letters with 
instructions to show me all the points of in- 
terest. They were off on the next train, but 
told me I would find my third man at home, 
which I did on arrival at his printing-office. 
The ride was as it were along paths through 
the midst of grain fields. First Haxey is 
reached, a quaint little village, then soon Ep- 
worth is seen, and one's emotions kindle with 
16 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



strange delight as we approach it. We found 
our guide to be a Methodist local preacher, 
editor of The Bpworth Bells, and quite an en- 
thusiastic antiquary, who, for the sake of our 
common friend, the author of my letter, at once 
put himself at our service. To the old parish 
church of St. Andrew we went first, of which 
Samuel Wesley was rector nearly forty years. 
The last rector, the Rev. and Hon. Mr. Dundas, 
held the same office for the same time. The 
two rectors are buried close to each other. 

We approach the church by a most beautiful 
"church walk" arched by overhanging trees all 
along the way. The building is in itself unat- 
tractive, but its associations make it of sur- 
passing interest to us as we enter its gray por- 
tals, thinking of Mother Wesley and her troop 
of boys and girls who often passed that way 
into the same ancient house of God. The sex- 
toness met us at the door with words of wel- 
come, and was very anxious to show us all the 
things of interest in the old church. "Damp 
and gloomy" we at once pronounced the in- 
terior. It had been raining in that region for 
about six weeks, they told us. The floor 
throughout was of stone or earth, the bare 
17 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

walls and low roofs of nave and aisles and 
old-fashioned seats seemed unlike aids to wor- 
ship. 

Close to the south door is the old font where 
all the Epworth-born Wesley babes were sol- 
emnly baptized. She produced the old font 
cover and pitcher which were used in those 
times. We stood in the place where the old 
rector stood, and seemed to hear him say, 
"John Benjamin, I baptize thee," etc.,' and won- 
dered if a cry was then heard from him whose 
later cry was to be heard all around the world. 
In the chancel we saw the Wesley chairs pre- 
served with great care. The old communion 
table is not there, but is now in the Wesley 
Memorial Church of the town. We passed 
through the low, narrow Wesley door which 
led into the small vestry and robing room. This 
was the inner sanctuary of Samuel Wesley. 
From it he passed out through the church, 
just outside of which he was suddenly seized 
and cast into prison for a debt of less than £30. 
We examined the old belfry, and last of all 
inside things we saw the old record chest, in 
which for ages the Church records were kept 
until the present iron safe was bought. Its lid 
18 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was a tree trunk in its natural state. My anti- 
quarian friend suggested this as the origin of 
"trunk," for box, which is such a care on Eng- 
lish railroads and such spoil for Yankee 
smashers. 

From inside the old trunk the sextoness 
brought out the very collection-box used in 
Wesley's day. We thought how Bishop Mc- 
Cabe's eyes would glisten if the present rector 
would present it to him for use in America. 
Thence out through the south door of the 
chancel to the grave of Samuel Wesley, M. A., 
which is very near the door. Since its restora- 
tion it has been railed around. On the end 
facing the open graveyard are two marks in 
the stone, said to be the very spots where the 
feet of John Wesley stood when he took it for 
his pulpit in June, 1742, for eight consecutive 
nights, and also on later visits. Of course we 
stood there, as have the many others who had 
thus worn away the stone. Curate Romley 
helped Methodism by excluding its founder 
from his father's pulpit, and by preaching 
against enthusiasts that June Sabbath-day. 
The people were notified of the service by John 
Taylor, Lady Huntingdon's servant, who was 

19 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



then traveling with John Wesley. This was 
his favorite stand on his early visits. After- 
ward he took the Old Cross in the Market- 
place, the shaft of which was blown down Feb- 
ruary 3, 1889. The base, on which he stood, 
still remains. It is probable that this base stood 
where the courthouse now is, and was moved 
to its present site, "a few yards to the north," 
and the pillar added in 1806. Having viewed 
the church from all sides, and admired the ap- 
proach by the steps on the north side, we pro- 
ceeded to the rectory. Having in mind the 
picture on the cover of The Bpworth Hymnal, 
we were astonished when, led by our guide, 
we entered a gate in a high wall, and, reaching 
a house-door, were told, "This is the rectory." 
It seemed too modern a house at first sight, 
and too secluded within itself, though appar- 
ently in the midst of the little town ; however, 
we soon became reconciled. 

The name of my guide and our card sent in 
brought immediately the rector, Canon Over- 
ton, to us with the kindliest of greetings. 
Look at him: he is a man of medium height 
and weight, a typical English, scholarly, Chris- 
tian gentleman of about fifty-five years of age. 
20 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



At least six published volumes on Ecclesias- 
tical History and a Life of John Wesley tes- 
tify to the scholarship which the University of 
Edinburgh recognized, in 1890, by conferring 
upon him an honorary D. D. He is an Oxford 
graduate, was elected to the same Lincoln Col- 
lege fellowship that John Wesley held, and 
occupied the same vine-clad room in that little, 
old college. His true Christian character is 
testified to by Epworthians of all the denom- 
inations, and also by the non-church-goers of 
his parish. His gentlemanliness is evident to 
all, and was especially appreciated by the in- 
quisitive Yankee visitor that day. We realized 
the value of time to him that Saturday morn- 
ing, and the inconvenience of visitors at that 
hour; but he at once disarmed us, and placed 
himself, the rectory, and all he knew of the 
Wesleys at our disposal. His well-cultivated 
historic sense found evident pleasure at our 
not-to-be-hidden interest. 

We first asked to see the kitchen where Mrs. 
Wesley held her gospel meetings. Two buxom 
English girls, "servants/' with rosy cheeks and 
beautifully white caps and dresses, were filling 
gallipots with newly-made jam, and we con- 
21 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



eluded that if Mrs. Wesley had crowded the 
people as close as those pots were crowded she 
could not get in more than one-third as many 
as the number of her historic but uncounted 
congregation of two hundred. After giving us 
the original lines of former hallway, etc., on 
the first floor, the kindly canon took us up the 
oak staircase to the study. We paused at the 
foot, and thought of the little Wesley feet pat- 
tering up those same old stairs in days gone 
by. After looking into the old cupboard under 
the stairs, where the strange noises of crash- 
ing bottles, etc., were heard, and thinking of 
the sounds as of the emptying of bags of gold 
at the foot of those stairs, we went up to the 
back room, which was the old Rector Wesley's 
study. Here he elaborated his thoughts on 
Job, and prepared his sermons, many of which 
made the political fur of those times fly in all 
directions. Thence we proceeded up the attic 
stairs to the "Ghost Room," where "Old 
Jeffrey/' as Hetty named him, held high car- 
nival, to the terror of not a few, and to the 
perplexity of many wise men. In the stairway 
is a dormer window, so arranged that the wall 
seems very thick ; the rector suggested that it 

22 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was one of the things which deceive. The 
large attic, or "Ghost Room," has a gypsum 
floor, as hard as any concrete sidewalk. 
Samuel Wesley built that house to stay. It 
sends forth hollow sounds as you walk upon 
it, which can easily be heard downstairs. 
Canon Overton thinks that the tithes of corn 
used to be brought and stored there. His idea 
of the ghost seems the most reasonable we can 
find. He finds a vein of superstition running 
through the Wesley family, and regards the 
ghost as a political one, introduced into the 
attic with the machinery, the noise of which 
was often heard, by way of the dormer win- 
dow, with the help of the servants. We lin- 
gered around the bedrooms, wondering which 
were occupied by John and Charles. Here, 
somewhere, was the schoolroom where the 
Mother of Methodism taught her children so 
wisely and well. From out these doors, at 
eight years of age, John went to church for his 
first communion. Thence at eleven years of 
age he went forth to Charterhouse School, 
with its trials and triumphs, carrying with him 
the benediction of his mother "St. Susannah." 
From out this house went those letters to L,on- 



23 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



don and Oxford which were as leading-strings 
to the young student, checking him when in the 
least inclined to turn aside from the right path, 
and guiding him in judgment when burdened 
with the responsibilities and perplexities of his 
life work. Here Charles Wesley struck the 
keynote of those songs of deliverance which 
now compass the Christian world. 

In this house was mapped out the very for- 
eign missionary movements which the father 
could not, but the son John did, through Meth- 
odism, operate. Had John Wesley's applica- 
tion been accepted — for Canon Overton says 
he did at last apply — this would have been his 
home, and this village of two thousand in- 
habitants his parish, and the whole course of 
modern Church history would have been 
changed ; and the Epworth League, whose first 
president was Susannah Wesley, would never 
have gone beyond the four walls which inclose 
the rectory with its beautiful grounds, and 
Methodism would be unknown. God saw that 
John Wesley was too great a man for Epworth 
parish alone, and so he thrust him out to raise 
up a people for himself. 

Not far from the rectory was born another 

24 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Methodist founder, the Rev. Alexander Kil- 
ham, who led off the first secession from the 
old body, The Methodist New Connection. 
A memorial chapel to Mr. Kilham was erected 
before the new Wesley Memorial Church and 
Manse. The church was opened September 
5, 1889. The late Bishop Gilbert Haven and 
many others spoke of the need of such a me- 
morial to take the place of the old chapel, which 
was dedicated by Dr. Adam Clarke in 1 821, and 
which still stands on the site of the first Meth- 
odist chapel in Lincolnshire, which was dedi- 
cated by John Wesley in 1758. Epworth is 
now the head of a large circuit, with twenty 
preaching-places, which some of the preachers 
say is one of the hardest fields in English Meth- 
odism. 

If you wish to see a typical English country 
town of the old time see Epworth ; but, as in- 
telligent Methodists, and especially as Epworth 
Leaguers, when in England do not fail to visit 
this English Bethlehem, where were born both 
the founder and the sweet singer of Methodism 
— John and Charles Wesley. 



25 



TRACKING THE FORERUNNER OF 
METHODISM 



George Whiteeieed, who was emphatically 
"a voice," preceded John Wesley in the great 
Methodist rribvement, and aided the Arminian 
branch of Methodism to an extent which is sel- 
dom acknowledged. In fact, we sadly neglect 
him in too many of our references to our early 
history. He preceded John Wesley by about 
three years in the experience of conversion. In 
itinerating, in open-air preaching, and in the 
evangelization of the masses in England, he 
was the forerunner. The first school of Meth- 
odism was started by him in Kingswood. In 
fact, it was Whitefield who called John Wesley 
to Bristol, where he really began the work 
which resulted in the great Church which hon- 
ors him as, under God, its founder. Whitefield 
preceded all the distinctive Methodists in 
America, and blazed the way for Methodist 
preachers to "circulate" from Georgia to 
26 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Maine, so that Wesley's early missionaries in 
1769, and later, heard echoes of this voice cry- 
ing in the wilderness. We think coming his- 
tories of Methodism will give more space to 
its John the Baptist and his preparation of the 
way for the one whom he always regarded as 
greater than himself. 

Having visited the church at Newburyport, 
Mass., where he had preached, and handled the 
very Bible he had used in that same pulpit; 
having read the cenotaph near by, and also 
having visited the house in which he died, we 
even entered the vault underneath the pulpit, 
and handled his bones. We then determined 
that our visit to England should include a walk 
in his earliest footsteps. On reaching Liver- 
pool, we booked to London by the Great 
Western Railroad, via Gloucester. Arriving, 
we at once sought and soon found the Bell Inn, 
its principal hotel, and asked to be shown the 
room in which George Whitefield was born. 
We were taken up to room No. 20. To this 
house his parents moved from Bristol, thirty- 
three and a half miles distant. In this room, 
December 16, 1714, George was born, and here 
his father died about two years later. Here 
27 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



for about eight years his widowed mother car- 
ried on the business, when she married Mr. 
Longden, a Gloucester ironmonger, still keep- 
ing the inn until her oldest son married. At 
fifteen years of age George left school, and 
donned the blue apron, mopped rooms, and 
served at the bar as a "common drawer" for 
about two years, w T hen he went back to school. 
We pictured him at the bar, where we saw a 
young lady presiding over decanters, glasses, 
and beer-mugs, waiting the orders of guests 
and transients. The buildings are the same, 
but changed from what they were in the days 
of the Whitefield proprietorship. 

We next found the Crypt Grammar- 
school near by. Here, at twelve years of 
age, he really began his education, and for 
three years was the show T -boy when distin- 
guished visitors came to the school. His 
speeches then made him famous among his 
fellow- students. After he had left school, for 
nearly two years he helped first his mother, 
and later his oldest brother, who took the "inn," 
and with it George as his helper. His sister- 
in-law and he could not agree; therefore 
28 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



George went to Bristol to visit a brother. Thus 
ended his inn-life. Whilst at Bristol he attended 
St. John's Church, and was there convicted of 
sin. Five years afterwards, on a sudden call, 
he preached from its pulpit. Later we visited 
the old church, a part of which is over the 
ancient arch which spans Broad Street, and 
is probably a remnant of an old city gate. The 
Whitefields lived on Wine Street, where also 
Southey was born. Here George often visited 
his sister, Mrs. Grevil, during his early min- 
istry. From here he sent for John Wesley, 
in March, 1739, to come and help in the great 
revival which had begun in the city, and in 
Kingswood, its suburb. 

From this early Bristol visit he returned to 
Gloucester, and to the Crypt School for nearly 
a year, when he left home for Pembroke Col- 
lege, Oxford. From Gloucester to Oxford 
we went to see his college. 

Turning down St. Aldate's Street from High 
Street, Oxford, we soon reached Pembroke 
Street, near which, but not on it, is Pembroke 
College. It at once strikes one as being 
modern, but the oriel window over the gate- 
29 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



way is ancient. Through this gateway passed 
the poor Gloucester boy to act as servitor, and 
to get an education. A room on the second 
floor, over the archway, had been vacated by 
poor young Samuel Johnson about a year be- 
fore. We found Dr. Johnson's portrait, by 
Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the library, which in 
Whitefield's day was the hall in which for 
eighteen months he acted as servitor. The 
present hall, which faces the entrance, is very 
much finer than the old one. Its date is 1848. 
We could not learn which rooms Whitefield 
occupied. The old chapel still remains; but, 
some years ago, it was changed from severe 
plainness to a thing of beauty. We pictured 
the young ascetic, as he walked these halls with 
empty stomach, "dirty shoes, a patched gown, 
and woolen gloves," thereby thinking he was 
doing God's service. He found the better way 
soon after he joined the "Holy Club." We 
followed him back to Gloucester, and stood 
at the cathedral altar where Bishop Benson 
ordained him deacon, and in St. Mary's de 
Crypt Pulpit, where he preached his first ser- 
mon, which made "fifteen people mad," and 

30 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was the beginning of the ministry which kin- 
dled fires in two hemispheres. We worshiped 
in some of the churches in England which 
once rang with his eloquence. It paid us to 
visit Gloucester, the city of Whitefield, the 
forerunner of Methodism, and the more so 
because Gloucester is also the historic Sun- 
day-school city. 



3i 



GLOUCESTER, THE SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL CITY 



Within five minutes' walk of all the White- 
field points of interest in Gloucester are the 
places made historic by Robert Raikes and 
the Sunday-school movement. We have 
named Gloucester "the Sunday-school city," 
not because it is now the banner city of Eng- 
land in that work, nor because the work be- 
gan there, as we are so often told, but because 
it there crystallized and took on a form which 
soon drew the attention of all England, and 
made Mr. Robert Raikes, the beginner of the 
work in Gloucester, so prominent as to be 
almost universally regarded as the founder of 
the Sunday-school movement. If our purpose 
were wholly historical, we would speak of the 
Sunday-schools of Borromeo in the diocese of 
Milan, his seven hundred and forty schools, 
with more than four hundred thousand chil- 
dren in them, and all those more than two 

32 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



hundred years before Raikes's school. We 
would also tell of John Wesley's Sunday- 
school in Georgia from 1735 to 1737, more 
than forty years before the Gloucester school. 
Also of many other beginnings in England, 
and especially those by the Methodists, notably 
that by Miss Hannah Ball, of High Wycombe, 
near London, which was in full work in 1769, 
eleven years before the first Sunday-school 
of Raikes. But, as our purpose is more pic- 
torial than historical, we will regard all other 
school efforts as sporadic, and Robert Raikes 
as the beginner of the Sunday-school move- 
ment, and Gloucester as the center whence 
it moved out for the conquest of the chil- 
dren for Christ and the Church. One pur- 
pose of our visit was to trace the foot- 
steps of this benevolent man. Come along, 
and you shall see them, and the scenes of his 
toil. We first went to his birthplace, which 
is in the house next door to the deanery, ad- 
joining the great cathedral. Here lived his 
father, Robert Raikes, Sr., the founder of the 
Gloucester Journal, which became the ninth 
provincial paper of England, and was a little 
larger than a sheet of foolscap when it was 

3 33 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



started in 1722. When Robert Raikes, Jr., 
took it, in 1757, the young editor of only 
twenty-two years of age put new life into it. 
He took a lively interest in the philanthropic 
work of John Howard, and dined him at his 
home when he visited Gloucester on prison 
reform work. Raikes then took up the same 
work in Gloucester Prison. As we looked at 
his birthplace, under the very shadow of the 
cathedral, and recalled his prison work, we 
thought how natural that he should branch 
out later in a work which would prevent chil- 
dren from becoming prisoners, and lead them 
instead into the house of God. 

We next moved on to his place of business, 
and found it in Southgate Street. It is op- 
posite the church of St. Mary de Crypt, where 
we saw two old houses with gabled roofs and 
timber-braced fronts. Herein, from 1757 to 
1802, lived and labored a savior of the chil- 
dren; shame that since his day it has ever 
been used as a "wine and spirit merchant's" 
place of business ! What desecration, Raikes's 
house turned into a "rumshop !" A center of 
salvation changed to a center of destruction! 

It was on the corner of this very Southgate 

34 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Street where he was moved with pity for the 
boys and girls, employees of Alderman 
Weaver, the Gloucester pinfactor. They were 
as lambs without fold or shepherd. Turn- 
ing to a good Methodist girl, Miss Sophia 
Cooke, a friend of his, and niece of the em- 
ployer of the children, he asked her what could 
be done for them. She quickly told him, and 
at her suggestion they were gathered and 
taken to Church on the next Sunday, she join- 
ing him in leading the ragged procession. Is 
it any wonder that John Wesley afterward rec- 
ommended her to Samuel Bradburn, the prince 
of Methodist preachers, who soon made her 
his wife, and to whom she proved a helpmeet 
indeed ? 

Mr. Raikes belonged to the Crypt Church, 
but his pastor did not favor the movement. 
Rev. Mr. Stock, who had held a Sunday-school 
in Ashbury, Berkshire, but had now moved 
to St. John's Church, Gloucester, became his 
coadjutor in the work, and perhaps the honors 
of the movement should be at least equally 
divided between them and Sophia Cooke. In 
imagination we saw the motley group march- 
ing to the cathedral service at 7 A. M., and 

35 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



going there with them we could almost see 
the benign Raikes handing them gingerbread 
and pennies as they passed him on their way 
from the Ladye Chapel. No wonder they 
met him later in the day, at the Sunday-school. 

We found the house where his first school 
was held. It is No. 43 St. Catherine Street. 
Here, in July, 1780, lived Mr. King. On en- 
tering, we found it occupied by a day-laborer, 
whose wife was busy ironing and caring for 
the babies. The main room is entered by the 
street door, which is divided into two parts, 
upper and lower. No hall or passage inter- 
venes between the sidewalk and room, which 
is about eighteen feet long and ten wide. The 
busy housewife told us that "a good many 
people came to see the place." It certainly 
is worth a visit. We next sought the house 
where the good man died, "Crypt House," on 
Bell Lane, the five-gabled house now occupied 
by Solicitor Bretherton. In St. Mary de Crypt 
Church, near by, we found his tomb. His 
school children followed his remains to this 
spot, and, as he willed, each received a shill- 
ing and a plum-cake at the funeral. A plain 
tablet near by bears his name, etc., and Job 

36 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



xxix, II, 12, 13, quoted in full. On his 
father's monument is a Latin tribute to him. 
The cathedral also has a monument to his 
memory. In Crypt Alley, near by, stands a 
memorial tower, with a Raikes tablet to his 
memory who systematized and changed Sun- 
day-school work from rarity to frequency, and 
from a local to a national institution, and thus 
made old Gloucester "the Sunday-school city." 



37 



CHATTERTON— POET, "MAD GEN- 
IUS;" AND WHITEFIELD, 
PREACHER 



Ons of the very finest parish churches in 
Old England is that of St. Mary Redcliffe, in 
the ancient city of Bristol. It far excels Bris- 
tol Cathedral in grandeur. We several times 
explored it during our visits to Bristol. Sir 
William Penn, father of our famous Quaker 
State founder, is buried there. Southey, Wes- 
ley's great biographer, and Coleridge married 
two sisters at its altar. Whitefield preached 
from its pulpit, "to such a congregation as 
my eyes never yet saw. Many went away for 
want of room." This was after his first re- 
turn from Georgia, and the Sunday after his 
first having "broken the ice," as he calls it, 
by preaching out-of-doors at Kingswood, on 
Saturday, February 17, 1739. Strange to say, 
all Bristol pulpits were closed against him a 
few days before, but that day three, and the 
next day a fourth, large parish churches were 
offered him. On Tuesday the chancellor of 

38 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the diocese arraigned him, and Bristol parish 
churches were ever after closed to this flam- 
ing evangelist and forerunner of Methodism. 
He wrote Dr. Butler, author of the "Analogy 
of Religion," who was then bishop of Bristol, 
and is buried in its cathedral ; but the bishop's 
reply is lost. We know the great analogist 
was friendly to Whitefield, and later gave 
him five guineas for his Orphanage. In Au- 
gust of this same year John Wesley had a 
"brush" with the same Bishop Butler on field 
preaching and on "justification by faith." It 
is preserved in Wesley's own handwriting. 

For about one hundred and fifty years the 
sextons of this grand old church had borne the 
name of Chatterton; but now the last of that 
name held the offices of "subchanter" of the 
Church and master of the "free school" on 
Pyle Street, near by. The school, then noted 
in the city, still stands, and is used as a com- 
mon primary school, though its ancient walls 
still bear the honored names of its founders. 
Master Chatterton lived, in a small house ad- 
joining the school, built in an inner court. 
Here, in August, 1752, died the father; and 
here, in the little bedroom into which we were 



/ 



39 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



shown, was born, on November 20, 1752, his 
posthumous son, Thomas Chatterton, the boy 
poet, whose works occupy two volumes of the 
British Poets, and whose fabrications precip- 
itated upon the literary world of that century 
the celebrated "Rowley controversy." He was 
a youthful prodigy, for he died by his own 
hand in 1770, when less than eighteen years 
of age. He attended the school which his 
father had taught, and later entered the cele- 
brated Colston's Charity School in the city. 
In the lofty monument erected on the church 
lawn he is dressed as a "Colston boy." He 
seems to have left school when about fourteen 
years of age. His having free and constant 
access to the old church, with its historic effi- 
gies and tablets, formed no small part of his 
real education, as his works show. Though 
he was "confirmed" at ten years of age, he 
was not only non-religious, but positively irre- 
ligious, as his whole life clearly showed. 

He called himself the "mad genius." A 
genius he certainly was, and erratic, too. He 
was also a bad genius, for his young life, as 
we study it, seems to have been marked by 
vain conceit and duplicity from its responsible 
40 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



beginning until its baneful end. "Paint me 
an angel with wings and a trumpet to trumpet 
my name over the world" was his modest 
desire ! He was early apprenticed to a lawyer 
in Bristol, but procured his release to go to 
London, whither he went, April 24, 1770. 
Before this he had never been one day out 
of the old city of Bristol, or out of sight of 
its old church. Though less than eighteen 
years old, his life work was nearly done, and 
all contained in the bundle of manuscripts he 
took with him into the coach for London, be- 
tween eight and nine P. M., April 24, 1770. 
The coach which bore him to the city was named 
"The Machine." In it John Wesley, probably, 
used to journey from Bristol to London. Chat- 
terton's whole life, save the last four months, 
was spent in Bristol, the very hotbed of Meth- 
odism. A few minutes' walk from his home 
would bring him to the first Methodist church 
in the world, which still stands in Broadmead. 
A few more minutes' walk would bring him to 
the house in Charles Street, near Stokes Croft, 
where Charles Wesley and his family had 
been living since three years before the young- 
poet was born. Bristol, and Kingswood, its 

4i 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



suburb, were all ablaze with Methodist fire 
during those years. That he came in contact 
with and sneered at Methodism is seen in one 
of his earliest poems, written when only eleven 
and a half years old. It is directed to one 
who had left the Methodist fold in order to 
get a position in the employ of a Church 
curate. It is entitled "Apostate Will." His 
poem called "The Methodist" closes by de- 
scribing such a one who 

" Thro' hills of Wesley's works had gone ; 
Could sing one hundred hymns by rote ; 
Hymns which will sanctify the throat; 
But some, indeed, composed so oddly 
You'd swear 'twas bawdy songs made godly." 

Thus he caricatures the poetry of Charles 
Wesley and the popular airs to which John 
Wesley had his people sing them. 

That he heard Whitefield preach is certain, 
from his description of him in his burletta, 
"The Journal :" 

" In his wooden palace jumping, 
Tearing, sweating, bawling, thumping, 
'Repent, repent, repent,' 
The mighty Whitefield cries, 
Oblique lightning in his eyes, 
'Or die and be damn'd!'" 
42 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



" Now lie raves like brindled cat, 
Now 'tis thunder, 
Rowling, 
Growling, 
Rumbling, 
Grumbling." 

" Again he starts, he beats his breast, 
He rolls his eyes, erects his chest." 

" Now again his cornets sounding, 
Sense and harmony confounding, 
Reason tortured, Scripture twisted 
• Into every form of fancy: 
Forms which never yet existed, 
And but his oblique optics can see. 
He swears, 
He tears, 

With sputtered nonsense now he breaks the ears ; 
At last the sermon and the paper ends." 

" The saint is melted, pays his fee, and wends ; 
And here the tedious length'ning Journal ends." 

Whitefield's mother and several of her chil- 
dren were then living in Bristol, which often 
brought the flaming evangelist to the old city. 

Had this precocious boy obeyed the teach- 
ings of these early Methodists whom he thus * 
opposed by his pen, he would have been saved 
from perpetrating the "Rowley Forgeries;" 
saved from the gross immoralities which his 

43 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



own pen declares, and which his friends have 
vainly tried to gloss over ; saved from the bit- 
ter disappointment to which his own vain con- 
ceit led him ; saved from the poison-cup which 
his own hand placed to his lips; saved from 
a pauper's grave; and, perhaps, saved to be- 
coming next to Charles Wesley, the greatest 
poet of Methodism. His "Hymn for Christ- 
mas-day" and "The Resignation" — the latter 
of which educed from James Montgomery 
one of the most touching of his earlier poems 
— these show the possibilities of a good hymn- 
writer in Thomas Chatterton, the boy poet, 
genius, anti-Methodist, and failure. Pro- 
fessor D. Masson, of the University of Edin- 
burgh, has well retold the story of his life and 
sad end in "Chatterton: A Story of the Year 
1770." 



44 



JOHN WESLEY'S FIRST AND LAST 
OPEN-AIR SERMONS 



Was Savannah, Georgia, or Bristol, Eng- 
land, the place where John Wesley preached 
his first open-air sermon? 

After weighing the evidence, we incline to 
the "Savannah Oak," or the trees near by, 
as the place where he, not excluded from the 
church by the authorities, but driven out by 
the heat and the crowd, first preached out-of- 
doors. But because of the peculiar circum- 
stances created by the newly-begun evan- 
gelical revival, John Wesley himself dates 
his out-of-door preaching from Monday, April 
2 > I 739? an d gives Bristol as the place. 

In that mine of early Methodist history, the 
Arminian and Methodist magazines, are many 
unworked veins which will yet yield golden 
inspiration to heroic sacrifice and service by 
Methodists yet to be. In the volume for 1807 
is the autobiography of "William Webb, of 

45 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Bristol" (England), who was one of the hear- 
ers of Wesley's first out-of-door sermons. 
Having many times visited the places men- 
tioned, the picture stands before us, and we 
would like to show it to you. It was in Bristol, 
Monday, April 2, 1739. At the call of White- 
field, who had been laboring in the city and 
suburbs since February 14th, and who had a 
great revival on his hands, Wesley arrived in 
that city for the first time, not knowing that 
for nearly forty years it was to become one 
of his three chief centers. Reaching the city 
on Saturday night, on Sunday he hears White- 
field preach in the open air, and is shocked at 
the irregularity. On the evening of the Sun- 
day, Whitefield having gone to his third serv- 
ice, Wesley expounds the Sermon on the 
Mount to a small society which met in 
Nicholas Street. The reason for this choice 
of subject is evident. Whitefield, since Feb- 
ruary 17th, had taken the fields and skies for 
his auditorium, "beginning," says Tyerman, 
"on Kingswood Hill, where Wesley heard him 
that day." Gloucester people say his first 
open-air sermon was preached in Brunswick 
Road, nearly opposite Parliament Street, now 

46 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



St. Michael's Square, in that, his native city. 
They are talking of a statue to be placed on 
the very spot. This may have been his first 
open-air sermon in Gloucester; but in his 
journals he speaks of "having broken the ice" 
in this matter "upon a mount" at Kingswood. 

Wesley, as though convicted under his own 
sermon on Sunday evening, on Monday, April 
2d, thus writes: "At four in the afternoon, I 
submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in 
the highways the glad tidings of salvation, 
speaking from a little eminence in a ground 
adjoining to the city, to about three thousand 
people." His text was, "The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed 
me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath 
sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of 
the Lord." (Luke iv, 18, 19.) 

For many years we tried hard to identify 
the yery spot where Wesley made this new 
departure. We knew that the "New Square," 
King's Square, was for many years his favorite 
Bristol out-of-door auditorium. Did he be- 



47 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



gin there ? Brandon Hill was suggested. The 
Baptist Mills Chapel people claimed it was 
near by, and that its corner-stone is the stone 
he stood upon. This seemed the most prob- 
able, until we found this autobiography of one 
of his hearers, who says he was present at 
Whitefield's service the day before, and, "when 
he had finished, he signified to the congrega- 
tion that there was one coming after him 
whose shoe's latchet he was not worthy to un- 
loose. He then published that the Rev. John 
Wesley would preach the next day at the fur- 
ther end of Philip's Plain." The actual place 
has since been identified as "a little eminence, 
or terrace of clay, at the southeast end of St. 
Philip's Plain." Myles, in his "Chronological 
History," says it was near the old chapel at 
Baptist Mills. The two places are not more 
than a mile apart, and seemed near because 
of the then open space between them. 

Whitefield thus introduced Wesley to his 
Bristol congregations, where he was to begin 
his real work among the masses. Neither of 
them knew that within six weeks the founda- 
tion-stone of the first Methodist church in the 
world would be laid in that city, nor that within 
48 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



forty-eight hours of that announcement a stone 
would be consecrated for building the first 
Methodist school of history in its suburb of 
Kingswood. 

William Webb went to hear Wesley's first 
open-air sermon. He was deeply convicted 
under it. He followed the preacher, who made 
a visit to a sick person at its close. He waited 
at the door, "being all the time exceedingly 
uneasy." Thence he followed him to Mrs. 
Norman's, where he held a parlor service, at 
which Whitefield and sister and other ladies 
were present. Here he felt "what a vile, 
wicked wretch am I." Later in the evening 
he followed him and company to a society 
meeting, which, according to Wesley's Jour- 
nals, began at seven o'clock that evening in 
Baldwin Street. Thus, on Monday, April 
2, 1739, at 4 P. M., Wesley preached his first 
out-of-door sermon. At seven the same even- 
ing he began to expound the Acts of the Apos- 
tles in Baldwin Street, and during the interim 
of services he made a sick visit, and held a 
parlor meeting, at all of which William Webb 
was present. This shows us how abundant 
were his labors, and also testifies to their suc- 
4 49 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



cess that day; for William Webb's conviction 
resulted in sound conversion and membership 
in the Methodist Society for upwards of sixty 
years. He died, aged ninety-seven years, 
January 29, 1806, and wrote his "experience" 
and the account of his memorable service only 
a few years before his departure for the Church 
above. His is the only record of this service 
we have ever found. From April 2, 1739, until 
October 6, 1790, more than fifty years, Wesley 
frequently thus preached to multitudes such 
as no church edifice could hold. His last 
open-air sermon was preached at Winchelsea, 
under an ash-tree, known as "Wesley's tree." 
It was formerly in the churchyard, and was 
long protected by the vicar of the parish, who 
prosecuted vandal pilgrims that mutilated it. 
A local preacher once bearing away a bough 
in triumph was apprehended, scared, severely 
threatened, and let go "on condition," etc. 
But antiquarian thieves are not all English. 
The gentlemanly "clerk of works" on Wes- 
ley's Chapel, City Road, told us of an Ameri- 
can who stole a baluster from Wesley's pulpit, 
and when caught, magnified the crime by say- 
ing he bought it of a workman there for a 

50 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



shilling. No wonder they closely eye us as 
they show us these historic spots. Wesley's 
last open-air sermon is also recorded by a 
hearer, Robert Miller. His text was a part 
of Christ's first outdoor sermon, "The king- 
dom of God is at hand ; repent ye, and believe 
the gospel." Wesley says of the sermon: "It 
seemed as if all that heard were, for the pres- 
ent, almost persuaded to be Christians." His 
hearer says, "The Word was attended with 
mighty power, and the tears of the people 
flowed in torrents." Thus the Master blessed 
the labors of his servant, Wesley, on both 
these historic occasions. Shall we, his sons 
in the gospel, see the city crowds surge past 
our church doors and never enter them, and 
refuse to carry the gospel to them where they 
do congregate? A revival of outdoor preach- 
ing would help answer, "How to reach the 
masses." 

If we modern Methodist preachers only 
knew what is in the air ! 



5i 



KINGSWOOD, AND METHODISM'S 
FIRST SCHOOL 



Kingswood is a suburb of Bristol, which is 
the Mecca of organized Methodism. Here 
was built the first Methodist school. It was 
projected in 1739. It was enlarged at various 
times for three-quarters of a century, until, 
in 185 1, it was vacated by Wesleyans for new 
and better buildings at Landsdown Hill, near 
Bath, about twelve miles distant. The build- 
ings were used for a reformatory school for 
boys, until, in 1895, they were entirely demol- 
ished, excepting the chapel, which remains to 
this day. Every other building is new. We 
many times visited the spot and explored the 
old buildings. 

This whole region is classic ground in early 
Methodist history. Here Methodism began its 
real work among the masses; here were won 
its earliest triumphs; here were gathered the 
inspirations for the hand-to-hand conflict with 

52 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

evil men, which marked off the movement 
from all religious agencies then existing. 

Methodism was introduced into Kingswood 
by the Rev. George Whitefield, February 17, 
1738. Born in Gloucester, about twenty-five 
miles distant, and having mother, sisters, and 
brothers then living in Bristol, he often came 
thither. Trouble had arisen because of his 
having preached in what was until recently 
Canon Farrar's pulpit, St. Margaret's, West- 
minster, London. He hastened down to Bristol. 
He was challenged to preach to the "heathen 
at Kingswood" while pleading for help for 
the American colonial work in Georgia. He 
dared to do even this, and set out for what 
had been the king's woods, and was then the 
newly-opened coal section of the southwest of 
England. The colliers were specimens of the 
very wickedest men of the England of those 
days. Extreme ignorance and the lowest vices 
had degraded the people to a state but little 
above the beasts they employed in their toils. 
As a specimen, a Kingswood native told us 
that a collier being asked if he knew about 
Jesus Christ, replied, using his peculiar brogue, 
"I never heard of such a fellow; is he a pit- 

53 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



man or a top man?" thus supposing it to be 
a collier he was asked about. In this region 
are Hannam Mount, and Rose Green, where 
Whitefield preached his first outdoor sermon 
to a congregation of two hundred. These two 
spots were chosen places where he began, and 
John Wesley continued, those field-preachings 
which are held by English Methodists to this 
day. Scarcely a city or large town where we 
spent a Sabbath was without such outdoor 
services. History records the Kingswood con- 
gregations as rising as high as twenty thou- 
sand, just as it does that Whitefield's congre- 
gation at the old South Church, in Boston, 
was six thousand; whereas, to-day, its utmost 
seating capacity would be but twelve hundred. 

Yet certain it is that vast numbers were 
drawn to these novel services, and to hear these 
new evangelists. Whitefield toiled in the city 
of Bristol and its suburbs, especially Kings- 
wood, until, at his request, John Wesley came 
to Bristol for the first time on March 30, 1739. 
Often have we pictured him as he was then, 
thirty-six years of age, coming to that ancient 
city to take up and carry on the work so well 
begun by his much loved brother, George 

54 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Whitefield. Certainly he had not the remotest 
idea that there would really begin his great 
life work; that there would be demonstrated 
among the masses at Bristol and Kingswood 
the power of applied Methodism; that in that 
old city should be built its first church, and 
in its suburb should be erected its first school ; 
that its streets and fields should echo with his 
own voice in open-air within twenty-four 
hours of his arrival; and that in its suburb, 
within a few days, should be laid the stone 
of the first school of Methodism. He simply 
followed the guiding cloud. The revival at 
Kingswood led the colliers to entreat Mr. 
Whitefield to build a school for their children. 
Thus Methodism wrought at the first salva- 
tion from ignorance, as well as from sin. They 
dined him, and brought him twenty pounds 
out of their own poverty for a school; and 
four days later its foundation-stone was laid 
by Whitefield, on the very day he left the 
village, which, save for one week in July, he 
did not again visit for two years. He made 
John Wesley his successor in this good work. 
Forty pounds more was all Whitefield col- 
lected for this object. The school was opened 

55 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



early in 1740. It was very unpretentious, and 
included "one large room, with four smaller 
ones for the teachers." Mr. Wesley enlarged 
on Whitefield's idea by adding teaching for 
adults mornings and nights, before and after 
the days of toil in the coal pits. 

We find a record of Wesley opening the 
school June 24, 1748. This must have been 
after one of the enlargements and alterations, 
of which there seem to have been many in its 
early history. Though its location is anything 
but picturesque, yet its associations are pecul- 
iarly interesting. Suddenly turning from a 
dirty land, you see the high walls which in- 
close it. Look at it as it was just before be- 
ing torn down. Entering the great gates at 
the porter's lodge, the buildings are before 
you. The boys in corduroy suits throng the 
open space, for it is the play hour. A hard 
set of boys they appear. Led by the circuit 
preacher, we enter the old house where reside 
the powers that be. We are shown over the 
house. Mr. Wesley's study, with his o^vn table, 
was still there, and in use. Scratched upon 
one of the small window-panes in capitals is 
"Samuel Smith/' 1 the name of one of the early 

56 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

masters. Upon another pane, which is care- 
fully covered with woven wire, is the inscrip- 
tion, by J. Wesley, "God is here; 1774." 

This pane was very carefully preserved, 
until a baseball smashed it to pieces. We go 
up to the large dormitory, still so used, and 
where so many of the sons of famous early 
Methodist preachers have slept; thence to the 
schoolhouse and chapel where is Wesley's pul- 
pit, which is now used at the chapel services. 
Bishop Warren, who afterwards secured Wes- 
ley's table, addressed the boys from it on his 
visit in 1890. It was in an old room at the 
end of this chapel where the poor Irish boy, 
Adam Clarke, was put on his arrival there, 
and told to anoint himself with what he called 
"an infernal unguent;" for the cruel wife of 
the schoolmaster thought he had the itch. It 
was while digging in the spacious garden he 
found a half-guinea, with which he bought a 
Hebrew grammar, which helped make his great 
commentary possible. This garden has inter- 
esting spots. Under a sycamore-tree therein 
was delivered the first sermon by a Methodist 
local preacher, John Cennick, whom Wesley 
had recently met and admired at Reading, and 

57 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was now soon to be made master at Kings- 
wood. Cennick himself tells the story in his 
autobiography. This first Methodist local 
preacher and schoolmaster, and author of the 
hymns, ' 'Children of the Heavenly King,'* 
"Jesus my all to heaven is gone," "Thou dear 
Redeemer, dying Lamb/' etc., afterward left 
the Wesleyan for the Whitefieldian branch of 
Methodism, and subsequently became a Mo- 
ravian. For many years the early preachers 
always preached under one of the sycamore- 
trees on John Wesley's birthday. We saw 
the great mulberry-tree which Wesley prob- 
ably planted, and which was then laden with 
fruit; also, the old pear-tree, which he cer- 
tainly planted, and which even then bore fruit 
in its old age, notwithstanding it had been 
struck by lightning and much disfigured. 

The Episcopal schoolmaster explained the 
symbolism of the rent tree thus: "You see at 
the roots it is firmly settled and whole; but 
here, about two feet from the ground, it parts 
almost in the center, and diverges for quite 
a length, until the two parts approach each 
other again, coming nearer and nearer until 
they unite again, and carry on the work of 

58 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



fruit-bearing, just as Mr. Wesley was always 
rooted in the old Church, diverged for a time, 
but in later life drew nearer and nearer to the 
mother Church, in union with which he died. 
His followers are yet to unite as does the old 
tree at the top." We could not help admiring 
his love for his own Zion, and also his in- 
genuity in regard to ours, together with his 
generosity when he said we might take not 
only a few leaves, but even a whole branch 
of both pear and mulberry trees, if we so de- 
sired. As we secured a few small souvenirs, 
the English circuit-preacher at our side made 
the usual point about American visitors and 
their love for curios. Near by is the "Wesley 
walk," a short terrace, prettily secluded by 
shrub-trees, where John Wesley loved to walk 
and meditate. The ruins of an old sundial 
of his day were lying there. Certainly this 
is the choicest spot in either of the goodly- 
sized gardens. What a pity that all these 
spots have been obliterated, the chapel only 
still standing! 

Notwithstanding Wesley's troubles with 
masters and boys at Kingswood, at which we 
do not wonder as we read the policy he dic- 

59 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



tated for them, and insisted on having carried 
out even to the very letter, he yet very much 
loved old Kir.gswood. Only eight months 
before his death he wrote, under date of Tune 
4, 1790: "We reached Xewcastle-on-Tyne. 



In this and Kingswood house, were I to do 
my own will, I should choose to spend the 
short remainder of my days. But it can not 
be: this is not my rest." Thus he loved his 

It seems almost sacrilegious that this, the 
first of the very many schools and colleges 
of Methodism, should have passed out of the 
possession of our people, and be razed to its 
very foundations. On a previous visit, in 
1 $70. near the school, we met a saintly man 
of nearly one hundred years of age who had 
heard Mr. Wesley preach in its chapel. His 
hand linked us with a past and noble genera- 
tion. 



60 



JOHN WESLEY'S FIRST METHODIST 
CIRCUIT 



Who would not like to walk with us around 
John Wesley's first Methodist circuit ? It was 
in Bristol that the circuit system began. It 
still exists in the old city, as it does generally 
among all the branches of Methodism in Eng- 
land to-day. 

At the call of Whitefield, John Wesley ar- 
rived in Bristol, Saturday, March 31, 1739. 
He remained in and around the city until 
Wednesday, June 13th. Let us follow him 
during those eventful weeks when the founda- 
tions of our great Church were being laid by 
one who builded much wiser than he knew. 
Arriving from London on Saturday evening, 
he met Whitefield at the home of his sister, 
Mrs. Grevil, the grocer, who lived and kept 
store in Wine Street, almost opposite the 
house where Southey, the biographer of Wes- 
ley, was born, thirty-five years later. Satur- 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



day evening seems to have been spent in talk- 
ing over the well-begun work, and in rest after 
the journey from London. On Sunday, Wes- 
ley is shocked at the irregularity of White- 
field in preaching out-of-doors. This fact 
probably had much to do with the subject of 
Wesley's sermon on the evening of that day, 
his first in Bristol. It was preached in a re- 
ligious society room in Nicholas Street; its 
subject was, "Our Lord's Sermon on the 
Mount." We searched the old street for this 
society room, but found the old landmark re- 
moved. The sermon certainly did the preacher 
good; for on the afternoon of the next day 
the preacher himself, proper Churchman as 
he was, took to the fields, and from a little 
eminence near the city preached to about 
three thousand people, from the text, "The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me," etc. We 
heard a clergyman, in gown and bands, preach- 
ing in the open air in Bristol one Sunday 
afternoon. An uncommon sight was this, and 
doubtless an indirect result of Wesley's visit, 
seen nearly one hundred and sixty years later. 

On the evening of that same day he com- 
menced a series of discources on the Acts of 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the Apostles, at Baldwin Street. How natural 
for him to choose such a portion after the new 
experience of the afternoon! His next ap- 
pointment on this forming circuit was at the 
Old Gaol, where, on the third day after his 
arrival, he began morning services. The 
chosen theme for the prisoners was, "The 
Gospel of St. John." 

The site of the old prison was easily found 
by "Newgate," the name of the old prison 
street, which is now occupied mostly by furni- 
ture brokers. Only a few ruins of the old 
prison remain among the ancient houses thus 
filled with old furniture and curiosities. The 
occupants of that old prison then sadly needed 
the services of the "St. John of England," 
who brought to them the helpful words of 
St. John, the apostle of the Lord. He seems 
to have enjoyed his first out-of-door preach- 
ing; for two days after this we find him do- 
ing it again at Baptist Mills. We found 
this place on the other side of the city. For 
many years it claimed to be the site of his 
first open-air sermon. The stone on which 
he stood when preaching in this neighborhood, 
which he often did afterward, is now the cor- 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

ner-stone of the Wesleyan Chapel, in which 
we had the honor of preaching, and where we 
found the largest Sunday-school in that large 
city. His next preaching point was in Castle 
Street, where a "society" met. 

The old castle is gone, but the street re- 
mains. We could not certainly decide on the 
room in which these services were held on the 
fourth day after his arrival in the city. Here 
he began expounding the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans. On Friday evening another new sta- 
tion is reached in Gloucester Lane, where lived 
some of the rougher elements of the city. 
Here he began a series of sermons on the First 
Epistle of John. Thus John's Gospel was 
chosen for the prisoners, and his Epistle for 
the rough people of Gloucester Eane. On the 
last day of that first week, Saturday evening, 
he is found at Weavers' Hall, where he be- 
gan the Epistle to the Romans, as he had done 
at Castle Street on Thursday. 

This hall was owned by the Guild of Weav- 
ers connected with Temple Church. It stood 
in Temple Street until as late as 1869, when 
it was demolished. Weavers' Chapel still 
stands at the east end of the north aisle of old 

64 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

Temple Church, from which Charles Wesley 
and his colliers were once driven from the 
sacrament. 

John Wesley's first week on this, his first 
Methodist circuit, was a very busy one. It 
included eight preaching-places, five of which 
were religious society rooms, one a common 
jail, and two out-of-door appointments. It 
is interesting to note how naturally the sub- 
jects chosen grew out of the mind and cir- 
cumstances of the preacher, and how well they 
suited the needs of the people, who at these 
points well represented the different classes 
of the old city where organized Methodism 
began, and where its adaptation to the masses 
was demonstrated first and forever. Of these 
eight preaching-places, only the two out-of- 
door ones remain. The old streets have been 
so altered that, in every case, the buildings 
have been either altered or torn down. It was 
a part of God's plan that those scattered re- 
ligious societies which Wesley first visited 
should also pass away, and many of their mem- 
bers be gathered into one body, having a com- 
mon center, and with what they greatly needed, 
one head and leader, who could teach and 
5 65 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



organize them into a branch of the great 
Church, whose real beginning occurred in that 
first week of John Wesley in Bristol. 

On the second Sunday in Bristol, Wesley 
preached in the open air to about one thou- 
sand people, at seven o'clock in the morning. 
He then went off to Kingswood, the cele- 
brated suburb of Bristol, where, on Hannam 
Mount, he cried, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
come ye here to the waters !" This historic 
part of the Bristol Circuit we have described. 
We will now visit the chief center of all Wes- 
ley's evangelistic work for many years — the 
first Methodist church in the world. 



66 



THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH 
IN THE WORLD 



The oldest Methodist church on this con- 
tinent is the St. George Methodist Episcopal 
Church, on Fourth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
All earlier ones have been demolished. The 
first in all the world still stands, and is but 
very little altered since John Wesley attended 
his last Conference within its walls in 179°* 
It is known in earliest Methodist history as 
the New Room, the Horse-fair Preaching- 
room, and Broadmead Chapel. It is in 
the ancient and historic city of Bristol, Eng- 
land. John Wesley arrived there for the first 
time, March 31, 1739. George Whitefield had 
sent for him to help in the well-begun revival 
in the old city. The religious society rooms 
in Baldwin Street and elsewhere could not 
hold the gathering crowds. So they both 
preached out-of-doors. Mr. Wesley's good 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



judgment saw that such a work of grace must 
be organized and have a home ; and as Church 
of England doors were closed to him and his 
helpers, he said, "We will rise and build." 
Whitefield probably would never have thought 
of such a thing. Had Wesley been like him, 
there would be no Methodist Church to-day. 
Within six weeks after his arrival the founda- 
tion-stone of this old chapel was laid. It was 
opened for worship when only a mere "shell," 
June 3, 1739. At first it was entered from 
the Horse Fair, which adjoins St. James's 
Churchyard, where lie nearly all of Charles 
Wesley's children. In 1748 it was enlarged, 
and a main entrance secured from Broad- 
mead. A stranger passing along the busy 
street called Broadmead would not notice 
it, because it is at the end of a long, flagged 
passage, shut in by high walls, which passage 
is shut off from the sidewalk by large iron 
gates. It can not be seen from the "Horse 
Fair," with which street it is assessed. 

We will enter from Broadmead. A narrow, 
dirty front chapel wall of brick and broken 
plaster covering the bricks meets the eye as 
one steps from the sidewalk into the passage. 
68 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



A central door is the only entrance. A small 
door at the side leads up to the classroom 
and tenements. An old arched window is over 
the main door, and two small square ones 
above on either side of it. On entering, we 
find the central floor filled with high-backed 
pews, and long forms around the sides under 
the galleries, which run around three sides 
of the building and lead down into the high 
pulpit at the other end. These are said to 
be the original seats, and we see no reason 
to doubt it. Certainly the pulpit is Wes- 
ley's. It is now much cut with vandal pen- 
knives. There is a little desk covered with 
faded cloth, once green ; probably the one 
Whitefield thought "too finely adorned," and 
Wesley answered him, "How?" "Why, with 
a piece of green cloth nailed to the desk, and 
two sconces for eight candles each in the mid- 
dle. Now, which of these," asks he, "can be 
spared ?" 

In Wesley's day the pulpit was a three- 
decker. Only one deck still remains; but it 
is the pulpit proper, where the preacher always 
stood and preached. The church is lighted 
by a lantern light in the roof and near the 
69 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



pulpit. The roof is held up by four large 
stone pillars. John Wesley built that house 
to stay. In the right-hand corner is a small 
room, lighted from the audience-room by old- 
fashioned, little window-panes in the parti- 
tion. The seats in this room are backless. 
The second Methodist Conference was held 
in this room, August I, 1745. The first Meth- 
odist class-meeting was organized and met 
herein. It will hold comfortably about thirty 
people. This first Bristol Conference was at- 
tended by one layman and ten preachers; so 
they had plenty of room to grow, which they 
have done. No spot on earth is so full of 
Methodist interest as is this old church, and 
especially to American Methodists. 

That old clock, hanging between the two 
pillars, could it but talk, could tell of Wesley's 
promptness at all services; of the Conference 
it looked down upon when Wesley and his 
preachers, in 1745, discussed the episcopal 
form of government. It could tell of Captain 
Webb's first cry for help for America, uttered 
therein at the Conference in 1768, and of the 
other Conference in 1 771, when, in response 
to the call, "Who will go for us ?" one Francis 
70 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Asbury, who was at Conference for the first 
time, rose and said, "Here am I; send me." 
We are all, and always shall be, glad he came. 
It was from that old pulpit John Wesley, in 
1740, preached the sermon on "Free Grace" 
which scared off George Whitefield. From 
this old sanctuary Lady Huntingdon drew off 
her feeble Calvinistic forces, because they could 
not stand before the Arminians. Around that 
mahogany communion-table the question was 
decided, Should Methodism have her sacra- 
ments, and be a Church, or an annex, or so- 
ciety merely ? Those old doors at the entrance 
were closed during Church of England service 
hours, until the trustees had for awhile to close 
them at all hours, because the people went off 
and built elsewhere, so that they could be in- 
dependent of the Established Church and its 
clergy. A history of early Methodism could 
well be written about this old church as a 
center. 

Herein were gathered the scattered societies 
of Baldwin and Nicholas Streets, to which 
Wesley first preached on reaching the city. 
For several years it was not only the head of 
the circuit, but of the work in the United 

7i 



I 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

Kingdom, and for sixty-five years it remained 
one of the three chief centers of Methodist 
operations in England. 

This old church has for very many years 
been owned, not by the Wesleyans, but by 
the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, a feeble folk 
in Bristol, who still hold services therein. In- 
dividual Wesleyans would purchase it were 
it not held for a fancy price. Our latest ex- 
perience in this old church we can never for- 
get. It happened on September 18, 1901, the 
day after the third Ecumenical Methodist 
Conference adjourned in London. Mass-meet- 
ings were held in great cities of England 
during the remainder of that week. At Bristol, 
at three o'clock in the afternoon, delegate 
Bishop Gaines, of the African Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, was to preach in the old church. 
It was filled to hear the colored bishop. An 
ex-lord mayor of the city, a Methodist, pre- 
sided. The bishop did not appear, and, with- 
out previous notice, we had to ascend that 
old pulpit and preach to the disappointed peo- 
ple. It fell to us, being the only delegate 
present. We did the best we could, taking 

72 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



for our text, "For Zion's sake will I not hold 
my peace, for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, 
until the righteousness thereof go forth as 
brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp 
that burneth." (Isa. lxii, i.) We appre- 
ciated the honor, but not the manner in which 
it was thrust upon us. 



73 



TICKINGS OF AN OLD METHODIST 
CLOCK 

Not to the old eight-day clock, in its up- 
right mahogany case, standing in Wesley's 
house, City Road, London, and which every 
Methodist pilgrim to London sees, do we now 
listen. We take our seat in Methodism's first 
church, in Bristol, built about forty years be- 
fore City Road Chapel, in London ; and, fac- 
ing the old clock, which still hangs on the 
side of the gallery, we ask this venerable time- 
piece to tell us of past hours, and to testify 
especially to what it knows would be of in- 
terest to an American Methodist. Having 
examined its claims to antiquity, and ques- 
tioned its pastor as to its reliability, we found 
another illustration of our founder's economy, 
in buying and building for permanence. The 
church itself was described in the last chapter. 
All alone in this historic structure, with note- 

74 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



book in hand, we listen to its clock's truthful 
tickings. Having changed its theology to 
Calvinistic Methodist, it tells of the wonder- 
ful sermon preached therein by John Wesley, 
about a year after the church was opened, on 
"Free Grace" (Wesley's Sermons, 128). That 
sermon drove off Whitefield and the other 
Calvinists, and prepared the way for the battle 
of the giants in the same house from which 
Lady Huntingdon drew off her forces in 177 1, 
which was the parting of ways for the two 
branches of Methodism. Yet, strange to say, 
in late years the old building, clock and all, 
became and now is the property of Calvinistic 
Methodism. That sermon drew fire, as seen 
by pamphlets it called forth. It was preached 
within a few feet of the old clock. 

Supposing that American Methodists are in- 
terested in class-meetings, it points to the little 
dark room against which we are sitting, say- 
ing, "Therein was organized the first Meth- 
odist class-meeting, February 15, 1742." It 
§ was the debt on this church which called the 
class-meeting into existence. Who can say 
that a church debt has never proved a bless- 
ing? Faithful attendance at class-meeting 

75 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

would still result in the speedy payment of 
many a Church debt. 

Not being inclined to report for the Ameri- 
can Methodist class-meeting, we changed the 
subject to historic Conferences, upon which 
the old clock had looked down in its youth- 
ful days. John Wesley held seventeen of his 
forty-seven Conferences in this church. The 
first met at the Foundry, June 25-27, 1744. 
The second here, August 1-3, 1745. On 
Saturday, August 3d, this question was raised : 
"Q. 5. Is episcopal, presbyterian, or inde- 
pendent Church government most agreeable 
to reason?" The discussion of that question 
must have been unusually interesting ; for John 
Wesley kept the subject before him a whole 
year, and at the next yearly Conference, held 
in this same place, he decided in favor of 
episcopacy. It was inexpedient then and 
there to organize the English societies under 
nominal episcopacy. During his lifetime he 
was really the episcopos of English Meth- 
odism, and when God had given him a people 
in America, he, nearly forty years after his 
decision of the question, and not in haste or 
imbecility, ordained a bishop, and by his 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



agency organized in America the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which stands to-day as the 
expression of Wesley's ideal form of Church 
polity, as he understood the New Testament. 
He made similar provision for English Meth- 
odism after his decease, but English Meth- 
odists seemed afraid to adopt it, under the 
shadow of the Church of England. Mather, 
whom he ordained for England, as he had 
ordained Coke for America, never entered 
upon this office, probably for the sake of peace ; 
hence, what might have been since 1791 the 
"Methodist Episcopal Church of England" 
has been the "Wesleyan Methodist Society." 
Not until within a few years have they officially 
assumed the title of "Church." Those Con- 
ferences upon which the old clock looked 
down in 1745 and 1746, gave us our polity. 
Who can tell what English Methodism of to- 
day would be had it only carried out Wesley's 
plan? 

The Conference of 1768 was held here. 
Strange to say, it also became vitally related 
to American Methodism. Francis Asbury 
was "admitted," after being one year on trial, 
and George Shadford, also to become a pio- 

77 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



neer, was "admitted on trial." He came over 
with Rankin in the second company of mis- 
sionaries to America. To this Conference 
came the first call for help in America. It 
came from Captain Thomas Webb, of Albany 
Barracks. He wanted help in the well-begun 
Methodist services in New York City. He is 
w T ell known in that old meeting-house. Three 
years before, this one-eyed soldier was led here 
by Rev. Mr. Roquet, who thought the Meth- 
odists under whom Webb had been convicted 
of sin could do more for him than could the 
Established Church, of which he was a pastor. 
This call was not responded to until it was 
reiterated at Leeds Conference the next year. 
But Joseph Pilmoor, who was present, pon- 
dered it a whole year; then, with Richard 
Boardman, gave himself to the American 
work. This old clock of time points to this 
spot, and not Leeds, as where the first cry 
for help came. October 14th of this year 
(1768), Mr. Wesley had a noted visitor, with 
whom he held private conference on the work 
in America — Rev. Dr. Wrangle, a Swedish 
missionary from Philadelphia, then on his way 
home, where he became a royal chaplain, and 

78 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



in 1770 wrote Wesley an interesting letter 
from Stockholm. He favored the struggling 
Methodist cause in America, and called to 
plead with Wesley to send helpers. He 
preached from the old pulpit to a large con- 
gregation, October 18th, after which he soon 
went his way, to do what was really Meth- 
odist work in Sweden. (See his letter in 
Tyerman's "Wesley," III, p. 66.) Our Swed- 
ish Methodists may thus see how their noble 
countryman helped in Methodist beginnings in 
America. 

Three years later, Conference again met 
under the old clock. Again the cry for help- 
ers for America rang out; when up arose the 
young man, Asbury, who had in this very 
place been admitted in full three years before, 
and, after having considered the matter for 
six months, offered and was accepted for the 
American work. We are glad he came. He 
found here three hundred and sixteen Meth- 
odists. When he was transferred to heaven, 
in 1816, he left in America two hundred thou- 
sand members, also seven hundred itinerant 
preachers, and his own sainted memory, as a 
rich treasure in every household in Meth- 

79 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



odism's worldwide parish. In 1773, among 
the worshipers may have been seen Captain 
Webb and wife, who had come to England 
to get missionaries. They had with them 
Thomas Rankin, and George Shadford who 
was here received on trial in 1768. All were 
about to depart from Bristol for America. 
The soldier-preacher had secured them at the 
London Conference of that year. The old 
clock pointed to the hour for the beginning of 
those farewell services. Lest this old time- 
piece should prove too garrulous for his 
editorial highness, we confined him to one 
other event he witnessed. 

It was four years later, at the Conference, 
when he saw enter the building an interesting 
young Welsh clergyman, an Oxford D. C. L. 
He had just left a curacy, about fifty-five miles 
from Bristol, and, having come in contact with 
Methodism, came to Conference to see for 
himself. He came, he saw, and was con- 
quered. He left the Conference in company 
with Mr. Wesley, traveled under him, and 
joined next year. Seven years later he was 
ordained the first Methodist bishop, with 
Whatcoat and Vasey, who had been ordained 
80 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



deacons and elders. September 18, 1784, was 
the date of Wesley's first ordinations. These 
three left the old meeting-house, and preach- 
ers' home therein, for the wharf where lay the 
Bristol ship bound for New York, where they 
arrived November 3d. At the ever-memorable 
Christmas Conference, 1784, was organized 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, 
whose history is so closely bound up with 
Methodism's first church, where to-day may 
be seen, upon the right gallery front, near 
Wesley's pulpit, the old clock to whose his- 
toric tickings we have been for the past few 
minutes listening. 



6 



81 



JOHN WESLEY AND BISHOP 
BUTLER 



The; old Bristol Cathedral is by no means 
a remarkable one. The parish church of St. 
Mary Redcliff, in the same city, is its superior 
in very many respects. In the cathedral choir 
is the grave of a remarkable man. He is 
buried near the throne upon which he sat for 
twelve years as bishop of the Diocese of 
Bristol. Perhaps we can not better introduce 
him to you than by reading the inscription 
on the monument, which was written by 
Robert Southey, also of Bristol : 

"Sacred to the Memory of Joseph Butler, 
D. C. L. Twelve Years Bishop of This Dio- 
cese, and Afterwards Bishop of Durham, 
whose Mortal Part Is Deposited In The Choir 
Of This Cathedral. Others Had Established 
The Historical and Prophetical Grounds Of 
The Christian Religion, and That Sure Testi- 
mony Of Its Truth Which Is Found In Its 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

Perfect Adaptation To The Heart Of Man. 
It Was Reserved For Him To Develop Its 
Analogy To The Constitution and Course Of 
Nature. And Laying His Strong Founda- 
tions In The Depth Of That Great Argument, 
There To Construct Another And Irrefragable 
Proof : Thus Rendering Philosophy Subserv- 
ient To Faith : And Finding In Outward And 
Visible Things The Type And Evidence Of 
Those Within The Veil. 

"Born A. D. 1692. Died 1752. 
'He Who Believes The Scriptures 
To Have Proceeded From Him Who Is The 
Author Of Nature, May Well Expect 
To Find the Same Sort Of Difficulties 
In it As Are 'Found In The Constitution 
Of Nature/— 'Origen, Philocal/ p. 23." 

Thus Southey, the poet laureate and biog- 
rapher of John Wesley, concisely sets forth 
the literary life of the author of the great 
"Analogy," which every Methodist preacher 
is supposed to have studied. The connection 
between Wesley and Southey is easily made; 
that between Butler and Wesley, though not 
so generally apparent, was closer. These two 

83 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



stand out in the history of the Church of Eng- 
land in the eighteenth century as two of her 
greatest sons. They were very dissimilar, but 
each mighty in his own sphere. These men 
once met in the palace, hard by the cathedral. 
It was in the spring of 1739. Whitefield was 
in the midst of a great revival in Bristol and 
Kingswood. The chancellor of the diocese did 
not enjoy it, and rebuked and threatened him. 
Bishop Butler treated him more kindly, and 
later gave him five guineas for his orphanage. 
Wesley, at the call of Whitefield, arrived in 
the old city, March 31, 1739. He threw him- 
self into the work, and here began his open- 
air preaching. His meetings were attended 
with remarkable mental and physical, as well 
as spiritual results. The city was wild with 
excitement. 

Wesley's work did not appeal to Bishop 
Butler. A part of their conversation is pre- 
served. Before quoting it, let us glance at the 
antecedents of these two really great men and 
Christians. Butler is forty-seven years old, 
Wesley is thirty-six. Butler is a great author 
and a bishop, and has passed the zenith of his 
powers. His sun went down in great weak- 

84 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ness thirteen years later. Wesley's powers 
have just begun to wax. More than fifty years 
of good work yet awaits him. Butler, born 
in Wantage, Berkshire, where King Alfred 
first saw the light, had been brought up a Non- 
conformist. From the Rev. Philip Barton's 
grammar-school in Wantage he had gone to 
Mr. Samuel Jones's academy, formerly of 
Gloucester, then of Tewkesbury. His fellow- 
pupils in that "noncon" academy included 
such men as afterward became authors : Dr. 
Nathaniel Lardner and Samuel Chandler and 
Dr. Maddox, bishop of Worcester, and Seeker, 
who became archbishop of Canterbury. But- 
ler's aptitude for theology and metaphysics 
was then very evident. At twenty-one years 
of age he left Nonconformity, entered the 
Church of England, and on March 17, 1714, 
he was admitted to Oxford University. Oriel 
was his college. Here he found himself in 
advance of his fellows, and grew restless. Pre- 
ferment came to him rapidly. He became 
"preacher at the Rolls Court, London," in 
1718; rector of Houghton-le-Spring in 1722; 
rector of Stanhope in 1725. Here he wrote 
his Analogy, which was first published in 1736, 

85 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



about three years before his meeting with John 
Wesley as bishop of Bristol, which office he 
had held about one year, having been pro- 
moted to it by George II on the recommenda- 
tion of his late queen, Caroline, whose chap- 
lain he had been. Wesley had been born in 
a rectory, trained a true Churchman, educated 
at the same Oxford, where he was then a 
"Fellow," but he had recently had a remark- 
able experience of the saving power of Christ, 
which had made him the flaming evangelist 
he then was, and which was the cause of this 
interview. It closed with : 

"Well," said the bishop; "well, sir, since 
you ask my advice, I will give it freely. You 
have no business here; therefore I advise you 
to go hence." 

Wesley replied : "My Lord, my business on 
earth is to do what good I can. Wherever, 
therefore, I think I can do the most good, 
there must I stay so long as I think so. At 
present I think I can do most good here ; there- 
fore here I stay." 

He did stay in Bristol until he had started 
his first chapel in the city, and his first school 
in the suburb of Kingswood, these being the 
86 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



first of Methodist history. He made Bristol, 
with London, his head centers, until he added 
Newcastle-on-Tyne in the North. 

Why Butler should have been so friendly 
to Whitefield and unfriendly to Wesley we 
can not tell. His letter to Whitefield is lost, 
but Whitefield's reply is before us. What a 
pity that these two truly good and great men 
should so have misunderstood each other! 
Wesley afterward read Butler's Analogy, and 
wrote of it : 

"Tues. Feby. 21st 1746. — I read Bishop 
Butler's 'Discourse on Analogy/ a strong and 
well-wrote treatise ; but, I am afraid, far too 
deep for their understanding to whom it is 
primarily addressed." 

Twenty-two years later he writes: 

"I went on in reading that fine book, Bishop 
Butler's 'Analogy.' But I doubt it is too hard 
for most of those for whom it is chiefly in- 
tended. Freethinkers, so called, are seldom 
close thinkers. They will not be at the pains 
of reading such a book as this. One that 
would profit them must dilute his sense, or 
they will neither swallow nor digest it." 

Had Wesley read the Analogy before the 

87 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

interview with its author, we think his bear- 
ing towards him would have been differ- 
ent. Had Butler only realized that Wesley 
was really a colaborer in the kingdom of truth 
and righteousness, he would not have for- 
bidden him to labor in his diocese. 

Butler, after eleven more years over the See 
of Bristol, was promoted to Durham. Soon 
his health failed, and he returned to Clifton, 
Bristol, thence to Bath, where, on Tuesday, 
June 16, 1752, he died. When dying, he said 
to his chaplain: 

"Though I have endeavored to avoid sin 
and to please God to the utmost of my power, 
yet, from the consciousness of perpetual in- 
firmities, I am still afraid to die." 

"My lord," said the chaplain, "you have 
forgotten that Jesus Christ is a Savior." 

"True; but how shall I know that he is a 
Savior for me?" 

"My lord, it is written, 'Him that cometh 
to me I will in no wise cast out.' " 

"True," said the bishop; "and I am sur- 
prised that, though I have read that Scripture 
a thousand times over, I never felt its virtue 
till this moment; and now I die happy." 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Thus, what the eagle eye of reason had 
failed to discern was revealed by the Spirit 
to the simple, trusting heart of the great Chris- 
tian philosopher and bishop, the comfort of 
the Holy Scriptures in the hour and article 
of death. For nearly fifty-two years after the 
interview with Bishop Butler, and for nearly 
forty years after his death, Wesley went every- 
where, preaching the gospel which Butler 
found so helpful to him in his dying hour. 

Wesley was a reasoner of no mean order. 
He was "moderator of the classes" at Lincoln, 
which means he presided over the daily "dis- 
putations." He published a book on "Logick" 
for his students at Kingswood. He wrote "An 
Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Re- 
ligion," and "A Farther Appeal to Men of 
Reason and Religion." These make a book 
of 239 pages, closely printed. In this he shows 
himself a master of logic. It is considered by 
good authorities his ablest literary work. It 
has been blessed to the conversion of many 
such people as Bishop Butler wrote to con- 
vert; but Wesley invariably commended the 
truth to every man's conscience in the sight 
of God. He quickened the intellects, and 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



stirred the emotions of his hearers very power- 
fully ; but this was his way to their hearts and 
consciences. 

Butler's sermons and Wesley's are radically 
different, as they ought to be ; for each had his 
own message from the Lord. The special 
work to which each was called was different. 
Each filled his own niche in English Church 
history; each had his place in the great king- 
dom of God in the earth. Butler did his great 
work with his pen in his study. His was 
largely the life of a recluse. Wesley's study 
was on wheels which were ever moving. Out 
of it he stepped daily, sometimes thrice, and 
even five times a day, to exercise his findings 
by applying them to the listening crowds who 
waited his coming. Butler was a man of 
books, Wesley was a man of books and of 
men. Butler dealt largely with "probable 
evidences" of Christianity; Wesley was busy 
securing practical evidences of Christianity, 
the conversion of sinners. Butler's evidences 
are good; Wesley's evidences are better and 
more powerful, though both kinds have their 
places in the realm of Christian truth. 

It must not be overlooked that Butler car- 



go 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

ried his probabilities up into "the highest 
moral certainty;" they "admitted of degrees 
from the slightest presumption to the highest 
moral certainty." The analogy and sermons, 
though not such popular reading as are the 
sermons of Spurgeon and Talmage, yet each 
appeals to its own class of mind. In fact, 
the one often has supplemented the other in 
the lives of intelligent Christians and thinkers. 
Henry Drummond's "Natural Law in the 
Spiritual World" has been called "Butler's 
Analogy Down-to-date." In his case the an- 
alogist and the evangelist were combined, the 
scientist, philosopher, and Christian worker 
among the masses met in the same man. As 
a close student of both Wesley and Butler has 
said : "Butler was neither revivalist nor re- 
former; Wesley was both. Butler influences 
thought, Wesley conduct. Butler appeals to 
reason, Wesley appeals to faith. Butler with- 
drew from men; Wesley was a great leader 
of men. These two men furnish a striking 
illustration of the text : 'There are diversities 
of gifts, but the same Spirit. . . . And 
there are diversities of operations, but it is 
the same God which worketh all in all.' " 



91 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE BULL- 
FIGHT 



About six miles from the ancient city of 
Bristol, England, where John Wesley really 
began his evangelistic work among the masses, 
lies the beautiful little Somersetshire village 
of Pensford. Having from boyhood heard 
traditions of Mr. Wesley's visits and labors 
among the plain country folk there, and be- 
ing in Bristol, which is the fair hunting- 
ground of Methodist archaeologists, as well 
as of fossils of other species, we decided to 
visit the place on a bright July Saturday after- 
noon, when the sons of toil and trade were 
out enjoying that blessed English institution, 
the Saturday half -holiday. When shall we 
have it, so that our young and older people 
may have a breathing-spell from toil between 
the Sabbaths? An old Methodist layman, a 
friend, brought out his "trap" — not a steel one 
to catch rodents in, but an easy carriage to 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ride over the hilly roads in — and off we set 
for Pensford, by the very roads traversed by 
Wesley at the beginning of his labors as a 
traveling preacher. Beautiful roads, with 
lovely scenery on every side, no wonder he 
was so enthusiastic about the place and its 
people. On reaching Bristol for the first 
time, March 31, 1739, George Whitefield hav- 
ing sent for him to help in the revival, he 
began his labors in the old city on the next 
day, which was Sunday, and on Monday 
preached out-of-doors for the first time. Dur- 
ing the first three weeks of labor in Bristol 
and Kingswood the fame of these evangelists 
became noised abroad. Among other invita- 
tions from the country around was the re- 
peated one to "come to Pensford." With his 
usual courtesy, he wrote the minister of the 
parish for leave to preach there; but getting 
no answer, he went on to Pensford without 
it, and, "in an open place," he preached unto 
the people. This was about three weeks be- 
fore the foundation-stone of the first Meth- 
odist church in the world was laid in Bristol. 
The Pensford people liked this kind of gospel 
work, and wanted more of it ; and even the 

93 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



minister consented, and gave Mr. Wesley leave 
to come again. On May 7th, just as he was 
setting out for the journey, he received this 
notice : 

"Sir, — Our minister having been informed 
that you are beside yourself, does not care 
you should preach in any of his churches." 

"I went, however," says Wesley, "and on 
Priestdown, about a half a mile from Pens- 
ford, preached Christ, our wisdom, righteous- 
ness, sanctification, and redemption." 

Of course, we also went to Priestdown.- 
It was on a later visit the celebrated bull- 
fight occurred, of which the natives still speak 
with enthusiasm. Good old Sister Beer, whose 
ancestors were among the actors, told me the 
story with true womanly eloquence. We found 
her reading a life of Wesley when we entered 
her cottage door. The story is this : At the 
repeated requests of the "serious people," Mr. 
Wesley went there to preach. The chosen 
place was "a green spot near the town," now 
"the common." The unserious people were 
on hand in full force. The sons of Belial met 
with the sons of God as in the olden time. 
They had been baiting a bull near by. Scarcely 

94 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



had the little man taken his stand upon the 
preacher's table, when the rabble broke in 
upon the congregation, bull and all. The 
roughs headed the bull towards the people 
first, and then towards the table ; but the crea- 
ture seemed kinder and wiser than they, and 
again and again refused to charge upon the 
crowd, but ran up and down on either side. 
The preacher and the service continued, not 
even a thread of the discourse being broken, 
until the wretches, exasperated by their failure 
to break up the meeting, they, by main force, 
took the bleeding bull, bitten by dogs and 
beaten by men, and dragged it among the 
people. They got the creature close up to 
the table, but it would not go against it; but, 
as the preacher, who was standing on the 
table all this time, himself writes of the poor 
creature, "It stirred no more than a log of 
wood." He also writes : "I once or twice put 
aside his head with my hand, that the blood 
might not drop upon my clothes, intending 
to go on as soon as the hurry should be a 
little over. But the table falling down, some 
of our friends caught me in their arms and 
carried me right away on their shoulders, 

95 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



while the rabble wreaked their vengeance on 
the table, which they tore bit from bit." He 
then coolly says, "We went a little way off, 
where I finished my discourse, without any 
noise or interruption." The local tradition is 
that he kindly patted the poor, suffering beast 
upon the head, and said, "Poor creature!" 
Such was the stuff of which the little man, 
our founder, was made. Such experiences 
from this time onward he and his helpers often 
met. Of course, a chapel was soon needed 
and obtained. This must have been one of 
the very first in Methodism. How sorry we 
were to learn that only three years before it was 
sold for about $250, torn down, and two little 
cottages built upon the same foundation, and 
Wesley's pulpit chopped up for firewood. Our 
sorrow was mitigated by seeing the handsome 
new stone chapel which has taken its place on 
the main road near by. 

On a later occasion, Mr. Wesley was in- 
formed that some neighboring gentlemen had 
declared they would apprehend the next 
preacher who came to Pensford. He rode 
over "to give them the meeting, but none ap- 
peared. The house was more than filled with 
96 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



deeply attentive hearers." Adjoining Pensford 
is the beautiful parish church of Publow. 
Here resided what Mr. Wesley calls "a fam- 
ily indeed. Such mistresses, and such a com- 
pany of children as, I believe, all England can 
not parallel !" Again and again he writes of 
them as being "lovely children." Thus he 
often referred to the young people of Publow 
and Pensford; both those of the school there, 
and those of the families of Scott and Wait, 
whose homes were open to him at all times. 
O how he would push Epworth League mat- 
ters if now among us ! This morning's mail 
from Epworth tells me of the formation of an 
Epworth League there last evening. Hurrah ! 
A League in old Epworth itself ! Again shout, 
Hurrah ! 



7 



97 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE DUDE 



About twelve miles from the ancient city 
of Bristol, which is the Mecca of organized 
Methodism, is the old and aristocratic city of 
Bath. This city has been for ages noted for 
its wonderful medicinal waters. Its baths and 
drinking fountains drew to its borders the rich 
and gay of all England. No less than four- 
teen visits have been made there by members 
of the royal family since 1738. These visits 
still make Bath a fashionable resort for the 
"gentry" of England. 

Nothwithstanding that earth's fountains 
poured forth their healing waters so freely, 
there was, in Wesley's day, a crying need for 
the "water of life" in that gay and wicked 
city. Wesley's motto was, "Go not only to 
those who need you, but to those who need 
you most." Having begun his really Meth- 
odistic work among the masses in Bristol on 
April 1, 1739, he soon learned the needs of 
Bath, and nine days after he — meanwhile hav- 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ing planned and traveled over his first circuit, 
on April ioth — made the first of the eighty- 
four visits to Bath which he records in his 
journals. Having traced his footsteps in 
Bristol very closely, and pumped dry every 
Methodist antiquary of the city to whom we 
could get access, we, too, on a bright Sep- 
tember day of 1 89 1, set out for Bath. We 
found it to be a beautiful city set upon 
hills, and which could not be hidden from 
the gaze of the passers by, even though they 
might be passengers on the "Flying Dutch- 
man/' which does the journey of one hundred 
and eight miles from London in two and a 
half hours. 

We were interested in the very ancient Ro- 
man baths, which stand next only to those of 
Caracalla, at Rome, in points of antiquarian 
interest; especially those portions discovered 
since 1880. The ancient abbey, with its 
Jacob's ladder on each side of the front en- 
trance, and especially the broken angels as- 
cending and descending, arrested our atten- 
tion. In their dilapidation, the angels look 
more like creeping things of earth than the 
flying angels of heaven. The magnificent in- 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



terior of the abbey, with its tablet-covered 
walls and costly graves bearing historic names, 
made us feel we were in no mean city. One 
grave, and one bust very near it, formed in 
our thought the connecting link between John 
Wesley and Bath. It was the bust and grave 
of "Beau Nash," the Bath dude of that period. 
We went direct from the abbey to the "grand 
pumproom" close by, where, with a glass of 
the hot mineral water before us, we sat down 
to think of some scenes enacted on and near 
that very spot in the days of earliest Meth- 
odism. Looking around the walls of the pump- 
room, we saw another bust of Nash, placed 
there as a tribute of respect for the great things 
he had done for the city. We learned that 
very much of the present grandeur of Bath 
is due to his efforts. He was a Welshman 
from Swansea, an adventurer who came to 
Bath in 1704, he then being about thirty years 
of age, "with a handsome face, plenty of as- 
surance, polite manners, and a certain smart- 
ness in conversation." He was just the man 
needed to improve the city and provide suit- 
able entertainment for the wealthy visitors 
who were then beginning to flock there. He 
100 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was soon chosen "master of the ceremonies." 
He changed the low sports of the city for 
more genteel ones. He discouraged cock- 
fighting and dueling, and encouraged gam- 
bling, at which he was himself an adept. His 
rules for amusements were unalterable, even 
for royalty. The civic authorities were moved 
by him to lay out walks for the people. " As- 
sembly-rooms" were built, and, above all, the 
"grand pumproom," on the very site of the 
spacious hall of that name wherein we sat, 
sipping our water, and recalled a scene en- 
acted there at the very beginnings of Meth- 
odism. It is June 6, 1739, and Wesley's 
twelfth visit to Bath. Methodism had so 
struck the city during the less than two months 
since Wesley first entered it that persecutions 
had arisen, and faint-hearted Mr. Merchant 
had declined to let its founder preach again 
on his grounds, because his neighbors perse- 
cuted him therefor. Wesley was warned and 
entreated not to preach in Bath again, because 
of what a "noted man" — the Beau — would do 
to him there. Of course, he went, and the 
rumor gave him a larger audience, among 
whom were many of the rich and great. 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Listen, as he himself describes the scene : "I 
told them plainly the Scripture had concluded 
them all under sin — high and low, rich and 
poor, one with another. Many of them seemed 
to be a little surprised, and were sinking apace 
into seriousness, when their champion ap- 
peared, and, coming close to me, asked by 
what authority I did these things. I replied, 
'By the authority of Jesus Christ, conveyed 
to me by the (now) archbishop of Canter- 
bury when he laid his hands upon me, and 
said, Take thou authority to preach the 
gospel.' He said, 'This is contrary to act of 
parliament ; this is a conventicle.' I answered, 
'Sir, the conventicles mentioned in that act 
(as the preamble shows) are seditious meet- 
ings; but this is not such; here is no shadow 
of sedition ; therefore it is not contrary to that 
act.' He replied, 'I say it is ; and besides, 
your preaching frightens people out of their 
wits.' 'Sir, did you ever hear me preach?' 
'No.' 'How, then, can. you judge of what 
you never heard?' 'Sir, by common report/ 
'Common report is not enough. Give me 
leave, sir, to ask, Is not your name Nash?' 
'My name is Nash.' 'Sir, I dare not judge 
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* Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

of you by common report. I think it not 
enough to judge by.' Here he paused awhile, 
and, having recovered himself, said, 'I desire 
to know what this people came here for?' On 
which, one replied: 'Sir, leave him to me; let 
an old woman answer him. You, Mr. Nash, 
take care of your body; we take care of our 
souls ; and for the food of our souls we come 
here.' He replied not a word, but walked 
away." 

Thus John Wesley himself describes the 
Bath dude and his vanquishment by the aid of 
an old woman. No wonder the street was full 
of people when he went out from the scene, 
and that several ladies followed him to the 
house, and would not let him rest until he 
came out, smiled upon them, gave them a few 
kindly words, and then retired. What could 
early Methodism have done without the noble 
women ? 

We also visited Lady Huntingdon's Bath 
church. It is a gem. We climbed the hill, 
and inspected the magnificent new Kings- 
wood School, where are 234 sons of Meth- 
odist preachers; but of these and other Bath 
events we can not now speak particularly. 
. 103 



THE BRIDAL HOME OF CHARLES 
WESLEY DISCOVERED 



Charles Wesley's marriage to Sarah 
Gwynne, of Garth, South Wales, was a most 
felicitous union. The saying, "Happy is the 
bride whom the sun shines on" was true in 
this instance. "The wedding was blessed with 
perfect weather. Not a cloud was to be seen 
from morning till night. The bridegroom 
rose at four, and spent three hours and a half 
in prayer or singing with his brother, his 
bride, and Miss Becky. Then came the great 
event. 'At eight I led my Sally to Church.' 
Only about six people were present, besides 
the family. The bride and bridegroom smiled 
as they crossed the threshold at the prophecy 
of a jealous friend, 'that if we were even at 
the church door to be married, she was sure, 
by revelation, that we would get no farther/ 
'My brother joined our hands — it was a most 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



solemn season of love! Never had I more 
of the Divine presence at the sacrament.' After 
a hymn had been sung, John Wesley prayed 
over the married pair in strong faith. The 
groom says . 'We walked back to the house 
and joined again in prayer. Prayer and 
thanksgiving was our whole employment. We 
were cheerful without mirth; serious without 
sadness. My brother seemed the happiest 
person among us.' " 

In less than two years, Charles married this 
happy brother, John ; but Charles felt far from 
being happy on the occasion. Thirty unhappy 
years was the result of John's unfortunate 
marriage ; nearly thirty-nine blissful years the 
result of Charles's wedding. Charles was in 
his forty-second year ; the bride in her twenty- 
third. The wedding took place on Saturday, 
April 8, 1749. After ten days' ministry in 
and near Garth he again itinerates. His wife, 
her sister, Miss Betsy, and their father go 
with him as far as Abergavenny, where he 
says, "I cheerfully left my partner for the 
Lord's work." 

Forty-nine days after the wedding he found 
a home for his bride at Bristol, then, with 

105 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



London, the head center of the Methodist 
movement. The identification of this house 
at Bristol was a mystery to historians for 
nearly a century. It has recently been iden- 
tified, after very much painstaking research by 
some Wesleyan ministers of that city. He 
says that, on May 27th, he hired a small house 
in Stoke's Croft, next door to Mrs. Vigor's, 
"such a one as suited a stranger and pilgrim 
upon earth.''' Its rent was only eleven pounds 
a year. He took possession of his "convent," 
as he calls it, with his wife, on September 1, 
1749. Here they lived in the sweetest con- 
jugal love until July, 1771, when they moved 
to London. But which house in Stoke's Croft? 
Many times have we searched the street of 
that name, many inquiries have we made of 
old residents and through the Bristol news- 
papers. Near by we found a family named 
Vigor. Our imagination fixed on one of a 
series of low houses, near the top of the croft, 
which once had a garden ; but no clue could 
we obtain from the oldest inhabitant or any one 
else. We noticed that later letters of Charles 
Wesley were headed Charles Street; there- 
fore, Charles Street, which is near Stoke's 
106 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Croft, we searched, but in vain; but local 
antiquaries prolonged the search until the 
house has been found. It is on Charles Street, 
one of two houses recessed from the others, 
and still in good preservation. In one lived 
Mrs. Vigor; to the other Charles Wesley 
brought his bride on September I, 1749. 
Strangely interesting it was to us on learning 
that our own paternal grandparents set up 
housekeeping nearly opposite the Wesley 
house, about one generation after Charles 
Wesley moved his family to London. 

The neighborhood has greatly degenerated 
since those days ; but the Wesley bridal home 
is of peculiar interest to all Methodists. It 
will be one of the Methodist shrines, to which 
American Methodist pilgrims will go in years 
to come. Charles Wesley now had a wife and 
a house, but he lacked proper furniture. To 
secure this he plied his busy pen. He at once 
issued "Hymns and Sacred Poems, in two 
Volumes, by Charles Wesley, M. A., Late 
Student of Christ Church, Oxford," from a 
copy of which we have just taken this title. 
It was published by subscription. The price, 
"in quires," was five shillings, of which half 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was to be paid on subscribing. Eleven hun- 
dred and forty-five copies were subscribed for, 
and the furniture needed was secured. Seven- 
teen volumes of hymns, varying in size from 
small pamphlet to the first Charles Street 
work of two volumes, were issued by the Wes- 
leys during the residence of Charles in this 
house. The first American Methodist hymn- 
book, "Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Intended 
for the Use of Real Christians of all Denom- 
inations (Col. iii, 9-11)," which also became 
Part I in the second American Methodist 
hymn-book, both of which were pre-Methodist 
Episcopal, was issued during the fifth year 
of residence in this home — 1753 being the date 
of the first edition. "The Fourteenth Edition, 
Bristol, Pine, 1768," was reprinted for our 
first book, and the "Sixteenth Edition, Pine, 
1772,'' was reprinted as Part I of our second 
American Methodist hymn-book. Copies of 
these originals are before us as we write. The 
only two tune-books issued by the Wesleys 
came out during the Bristol residence of 
Charles Wesley. Here, then, at this old house, 
we find the head stream of American Meth- 
odist song. We wish our hymn-book com- 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



missions could each visit this Wesley house, 
which we revisited during the third Ecumenical 
Conference, in September, 1901. Though the 
poet of Methodism had left the house one 
hundred and thirty years before that date, and 
though about the last thing it would now sug- 
gest would be sacred poetry, yet to us it seemed 
very sacred still. Before that door Lady 
Huntingdon's carriage had often stood, while 
her ladyship was visiting with the Wesley 
family. Many other carriage-people were 
visitors there, as well as the poor and pious. 
The first Methodist chapel of history, built 
in 1739 and still in use, is only five minutes' 
walk from this house. There were John Wes- 
ley's headquarters and the preachers' home. 
There Charles was, as it were, "preacher in 
charge," though often off itinerating. Mid- 
way between the house and the Methodist 
chapel is the parish church of St. James, to 
which Charles Wesley and family went to 
worship, inasmuch as Methodist meetings 
were never then held during hours of service 
at Church. 

All of Charles Wesley's eight children were 
born in this house. Five died here in infancy. 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



These five had been put out to nurse. The 
three nursed at home survived, says his son, 
Samuel, who was three and a half years old 
when the family moved to London in 1771. 
Death entered this home five times during 
the poet's residence there. The funeral pro- 
cessions from that door had not far to go to 
reach St. James Churchyard, where, under- 
neath the "Wesley tree," a large, wide-spread- 
ing weeping witch elm, still standing, they 
were buried. The entry of each death and 
burial still may be seen upon the records of 
the parish church. The churchyard has re- 
cently been converted into a public park. 
Many of the tombstones are removed. The 
Wesley tombstone is now placed, with others, 
just inside the main entrance nearest the 
Charles Street house. It reads: 

"Sacred to the memory of John, Susannah, 
Martha, and John James, infant children of 
the late Rev. Charles Wesley, M. A., of 
Christ's College, Oxford, and of Sarah, his 
wife; and also of their daughter, Sarah Wes- 
ley, who departed this life on the 19th Sep- 
tember, 1828, aged 68 years. 



no 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

" Hosannah to Jesus on high, 

Another has entered her rest, 
Another is 'scaped to the sky 

And lodged in Immanuel's breast. 
The soul of our sister is gone 

To heighten the triumph above, 
Exalted to Jesus' throne 

And clasped in the arms of his love." 

The date of Sarah's death is fifty-seven 
years later than that of the removal of the 
family to London. She died while on a visit 
to friends on Paul's Street, Kingsdown, 
Bristol. The rector himself buried her, and 
made the entry, as though he regarded her as 
a very special person. Doubtless he — Rev. 
Thomas T. Biddulph — sympathized with the 
Methodist movement. His volume of sermons 
on the Holy Spirit shows him to have been a 
spiritually-minded man and preacher. 

It is very remarkable that the recently-dis- 
covered house in which John Wesley ordained 
Bishop Coke and Elders Whatcoat and Vasey 
for the American work almost adjoins the 
Charles Wesley house in the rear. Surely 
old Bristol is the richest of all mines for Meth- 
odist antiquarian research. 



in 



THE EVOLUTION OF METHODISM'S 
FIRST BISHOP— I 



Ever since our eyes were opened to behold 
the wondrous things in the history of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church we have earnestly 
desired to visit the birthplace, and to walk in 
the earliest footsteps of its first bishop. In 
view of his near departure, John Wesley or- 
dained Alexander Mather to the same office, 
in the English Methodist Church, that he had 
before given to Dr. Coke for the American; 
yet, strange as it may appear, the episcopal 
polity was never adopted by Wesley's English 
successors. Did they "cower under the an- 
cient shadow" which was over them in Eng- 
land? Most certainly John Wesley regarded 
the episcopal polity as being the nearest to 
the New Testament idea, and nearly forty 
years after his decision of this question, he 
ordained the Rev. Thomas Coke, D. C. L., to 



112 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the office of superintendent, or bishop, and 
commissioned him to organize the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in America. In the foot- 
steps of this great and good man we are now 
walking. 

We first visited the beautiful little South 
Welsh town of Brecon, in Brecknockshire, 
where he was born, September 9, 1747, and 
where he resided until he went forth to a 
curacy in 1770. We found Brecon to be about 
one hundred and sixty-three miles west of 
London, and thirty-four miles northwest of 
Monmouth. We reached it by turning aside 
from the beaten track of tourist travel at 
Hereford. Having there booked to Brecon, 
about thirty-seven and a half miles distant, 
we experienced a strange delight as we rode 
through the almost enchanting scenery in the 
valley of the Usk, with its most fertile fields 
and towering Welsh mountains on either side, 
knowing that we should soon enter the his- 
toric little town, of which it is now said, 
"Bishop Coke was born there." 

On our way thither we plied the Breconians, 
in the same car, with questions about the place 
and the man, and from Wesleyans who hap- 

8 113 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



pened to be therein we learned some things 
about both it and him. On reaching the "sta- 
tion," we first looked down upon the pretty 
Welsh town lying below us, and then sought 
the Wesleyan minister, who very kindly put 
himself at our service, and also all he knew 
of the object of our search. 

We could find no member of the Coke fam- 
ily in the neighborhood. The bishop seems 
to have been the last who represented that 
honorable Welsh name. We inquired for the 
old "Coke estate/' expecting, from what we 
had read, to find houses and lands which once 
bore the name of the family of him whose 
fortune is usually spoken of as having been 
great. We were shown the store, which was 
once the "apothecary's shop" of Bartholomew 
Coke, who was also a successful medical prac- 
titioner ; for it was said of him : 

" He knew the cause of every malady 
Were it of cold or hot, or moist or dry." 

In this house, which has been but recently 
remodeled, our first bishop was born. Herein 
he lived until he reached his twenty-fourth 
year — Oxford term times only excepted. Here 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the little "dark-haired child, low in stature, 
but bright and beautiful in aspect," received 
the fondest care of his aged parents; for he 
was their "Benjamin," and gladdened their 
declining days. His loving mother — formerly 
Anne Phillips, of Trosdre, in the same county 
— was a true helpmeet to her husband. They 
both heartily consecrated this their third but 
only living child to God and his service. We 
went from the house to the old Priory 
Church, and stood at the font where, on 
October 5, 1747, these godly parents presented 
their child, when only twenty-six days old, as 
an offering to the Lord, and then went home 
to fulfill all the promises they had there made 
to train him up. 

We walked the streets of the old town, 
whose sidewalks seemed to be the same that 
his boyish feet had pressed. We looked up 
at the cloud-capped mountains, "The Bea- 
cons," and down upon the beautiful Trwyd- 
grech Waterfall, which were familiar to him. 
We walked along the banks of the rivers Usk 
and Honder, into whose rippling waters he had 
often looked. We walked around the pic- 
turesque burial-ground of the old Priory 

115 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Church, and through its spacious nave, aisles, 
and transept ; every pillar which holds up the 
groined roof must have been familiar to the 
boy, Thomas Coke, who was yet to bring so 
much honor to his native town. Who can tell 
how much such beautiful surroundings had 
to do with the formation of his character? 
Of course, we must visit the College of the 
Church of Christ, of which Mr. Griffiths was 
master in those days, and whom Thomas Coke 
always revered. The new buildings are now 
called Christ's College. Here he fitted for 
Oxford, and, at fifteen years of age, he one 
day, amid the anxious solicitations of his lov- 
ing father and mother and many friends, set 
out for Jesus College, Oxford. 

Before following him to Oxford, we learned, 
and will speak, of other Brecon preachers who 
were vitally related to American Methodism. 
We found that this little town and its county 
claims the honor of having given to universal 
Methodism its first itinerant preacher, first 
martyr, first college, and its first and greatest 
Welsh hymnist. The county also gave Charles 
Wesley his wife. Bartholomew Coke was the 
physician of her father's family at Garth. 
116 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Joseph Pilmoor, one of the first two mission- 
aries to America, traveled the circuit in 1767-8, 
when it was called the Wales Circuit. During 
his second year here he pondered the question 
of going to America, and, going up to Confer- 
ence from this place in 1769, he offered and 
was accepted. Thus he left Brecon for 
America. 

We also find the tracks of a second Meth- 
odist bishop in Brecon. In 1774, when Pilmoor 
became disaffected and left us, Brecon Meth- 
odism was under the fires of persecution from 
the grand jury of the county. To stem the tide 
at Brecon, a young man named Richard What- 
coat was sent to the circuit. Here he needed 
"his wits about him, and the Lord about his 
wits." He proved equal to the occasion. 
Doubtless his Brecon experiences helped fit 
him for his mission, when, just ten years later, 
he became the first Methodist elder, and the 
companion of the Breconian, Dr. Thomas Coke, 
who was not then, in 1774, a Methodist, and 
together with Thomas Vasey, he was sent to 
help organize the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in America. Sixteen years later the Brecon 
preacher, Richard Whatcoat, was, in prefer- 
117 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ence to Jesse Lee, elected and ordained our 
third bishop, the colleague of Coke and Asbury. 
Thus two Brecon preachers became our 
bishops, and one our first missionary. Thus 
this little town touched our great Nation and 
Church. We followed Thomas Coke to Ox- 
ford and beyond, and will take you with us 
in our next. 



118 



THE EVOLUTION OF METHODISM'S 
FIRST BISHOP— II 



Imagine; Thomas Coke, of Brecon, just set- 
ting out for Oxford. Jesus College was the 
one chosen for his training. This college, hav- 
ing been founded by Hugh Price, LL. D., of 
Brecknockshire, and especially for Welshmen, 
it naturally would be the choice of Bartholo- 
mew Coke for his son. 

We also went to Jesus College, Oxford, to 
trace his steps. It is on Turl Street, near 
Broad Street. Passing through the front en- 
trance, which was rebuilt in 1856, we soon found 
a guide, who led us into the two pretty quad- 
rangles, which met the gaze of the Welsh boy 
and his father in 1763. We found it to be a 
distinctively Welsh college. The chapel serv- 
ices are still conducted in that tongue, as well 
as in English. Herein the boy Thomas wor- 
shiped at first, and later doubted. We were 
shown over the spacious and lofty hall, with 
119 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



its portrait-covered walls. We inquired for 
that of Bishop Coke. To our surprise, to put 
it mildly, we found that whilst the names of 
the more than twenty English Church bishops 
who went forth from its halls are well remem- 
bered, even the name of our Bishop Coke was 
unknown to our guide, who had spent a good 
part of his life there, but had never heard him 
mentioned. A good Life of Bishop Thomas 
Coke is needed in that college library. His 
name should be at once enrolled beneath 
those of Sir Thomas Herbert, John Davies, 
Rees Pritchard, Archbishop Usher, and other 
eminent men of this college. 

We followed him as, on February 4, 1768, 
the young B. A. left these classic shades for 
Brecon. An intimate acquaintance of his de- 
scribes him as being, like Zaccheus, little of 
stature, five feet one inch in height, with short 
neck, strong, stout, vigorous, with handsome, 
open countenance, fair and ruddy cheeks, dark 
eyes, and black hair. He is now nearly of age. 
The homes of Brecon's best families are open 
to the Oxford graduate. Soon after reaching 
his majority, his townsmen honor him by 
choosing him to be their chief magistrate. 
120 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Three years he thus spends in his native town, 
whose books still show records of his public 
and magisterial acts. 

But God had greater work for him to do. 
His great heart began to beat for that work, 
so that he could not wait for political patron- 
age, but in 1770 he found an opening for a 
curacy in Road, a few miles from Bath and 
Bristol, and went back to Oxford for ordina- 
tion as deacon, and for title to a curacy. Se- 
curing these he, three days after, took his 
M. A. degree, and labored as deacon until he 
received priest's orders, at Abergoville, August 
23, 1772. Three years later he took his final 
degree of D. C. L. 

Leaving his first curacy at Road, we fol- 
lowed him to his second and final Church of 
England charge, the curacy of South Pether- 
ton, in Somersetshire. How often had we 
wished to see the place, the pulpit from which 
the young man, whose heart God and Meth- 
odism had touched, preached such fervent gos- 
pel sermons as awakened those lethargic vil- 
lagers of that quaint place! We also wanted 
to see those church-bells, whose dissonant 
sounds, at the word of his enemies, who could 
121 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

not understand him, rung him out of Church, 
after, to his surprise, his dismissal had been 
publicly read. 

Instead of a little church, we found a large 
and beautiful old structure, with nearly all the 
appointments of papal times— such as holy- 
water bowls at entrances, etc. — still remaining ; 
but, of course, now unused. We concluded 
that the church would accommodate at least 
one thousand worshipers, notwithstanding the 
gallery — which Dr. Coke had built at his own 
expense because the vestrymen would not do 
it — had been removed, it not now being needed. 
We entered the belfry, and looked at the old 
bells, and forgave them, because they took back 
all they said that day, and declared it to the 
people by sweetly chiming him into town on 
later visits. We found the doctor's name there 
held in great honor to-day by all the people. 
We were taken over the beautiful Wesleyan 
Dr. Coke Memorial Church and Manse, 
which does credit to the man and our cause 
in the town. We concluded that this journey 
of fifty-four miles, from Bristol via Martock, 
well paid us in inspiration for better work 
in the future. Somersetshire is a most beau- 



122 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

tiful as well as historic English county, which 
lies outside of the "beaten track" of ordinary 
American tourists. 

We next followed the young curate to Bris- 
tol, where, in 1777, he first saw a Methodist 
Conference. We stood in the old chapel, Wes- 
ley's first, and pictured him entering the doors, 
and for the first time seeing the men with 
whom his future life was to be spent. Here 
he first met the saintly Fletcher, and thanked 
him for his works, which he had just been 
reading to his soul's profit. He did not join 
Conference that year, but took work under 
John Wesley's eldership, who left him to work 
out his own conclusions as to his future course. 
This he soon did, and, next year, 1778, he 
formally joined Conference, and was stationed 
at the Foundry, in London. 

Now his great career really began. He is 
now in his thirty-first year, and henceforth be- 
comes the right-hand supporter of Mr. Wesley. 
He is young, scholarly, rich, having a fortune 
of about £3,000 — $15,000 — and, best of all, is 
"rich toward God." Henceforth he spent his 
life in enriching others, even as did Christ, 
his Master. His fortune was later augmented 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



by that of Miss Smith, whom he first met in 
Bristol and who became his first wife, and 
also by that of his second wife, Miss Loxdale, 
both of whom, with him, made a purse-and-all 
consecration to the Lord and his service. 

We were most interested in tracing him to 
Bristol, in 1784, when, by appointment, he 
there met Mr. Wesley for ordination as bishop, 
and also to receive his commission to organize 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Amer- 
ica. Both of these were received at a place not 
many minutes' walk from the house at which 
we stopped. In the Mission House, at Lon- 
don, we saw the original commission given 
him, in John Wesley's own handwriting; also 
certificates of ordination, written and signed 
by Bishop Coke, for English missionaries, 
whom he had himself ordained. We learned 
that ever since his days English Methodist 
missionaries only receive certificates of ordi- 
nation. The home preachers receive no such 
documents. Concerning his work in America, 
and nearly all over the world, and his wonder- 
ful end, we will not now write ; but, returning 
for a while to Brecon, we find the Wesleyan 
Chapel on Lion Street. The Dr. Coke Me- 
124 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



morial Schools are burned down. The old 
chapel remains. It is unworthy the place of 
Bishop Coke's birth. Over the pulpit are three 
large tablets, one to the memory of the bishop 
in the middle, and on either side one to each 
of his devoted wives, near whom he desired 
to be buried ; but God had a larger grave for 
him, even the whole Indian Ocean, into which 
his body was committed, May 3, 1814, and 
whose waves now momently chant his requiem. 

By a fortunate providence the mural tablets 
were obtained from the Priory Church, to- 
gether with one to the bishop's father, only a 
few years ago, and placed in the Methodist 
chapel. A facsimile has since been secured, 
and placed in the Old Priory Church, where 
the Coke family worshiped, in that beautiful 
little South Welsh town of Brecon, which 
American Methodist tourists would do wisely 
to include in their itineraries. 



125 



BISHOP COKE— AN IMPORTANT 
CORRECTION— A SMALL COL- 
LECTION 

Bishop Thomas Coke, D. C. L., the first 
Protestant bishop in America, excepting a few 
visiting Moravians who had preceded him, 
organized the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in America. This was done at the famous 
Christmas Conference of 1784, in Baltimore. 
His authority came from John Wesley, the 
planter, under God, of the great Methodist 
vine, whose branches are running all over the 
earth. He was ordained superintendent, as 
the Wesley Prayer-book, called "The Sun- 
day Service of the Methodists, With Other 
Occasional Services," first printed in Eng- 
land, calls it, but bishop, as the American 
Conference subsequently called the office. 
They preferred the Scriptural to the Wesleyan 
title. But where did this ordaining act take 
place? In Bristol, England, on September 2, 
126 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



1784. Yes ; but whereabouts in Bristol ? Un- 
til recently we all have said, in John Wesley's 
room, at his very first chapel, which may still 
be entered either from Broadmead or the Horse 
Fair, the foundation-stone of which was laid 
on May 12, 1739. ) 

We have several times stood bareheaded in 
that little room, and pictured the scene, the 
opening act of the great sacred drama of Amer- 
ican Episcopal Methodism. All the histories 
either said or implied that this was the very 
spot. This pen has many times said so. It 
had good reason to say so; for back of the 
histories, did not Dr. Coke himself write from 
London suggesting that it should be done "in 

your chamber in Mr. C n's house ?" Where 

was John Wesley's chamber but in the old 
chapel house? Was not the Rev. James 
Creighton a Methodist preacher as well as a 
clergyman of the Church of Ireland? Was 
not the chapel tenement the temporary home 
of all the Methodist preachers in Bristol ? Did 
not Mr. Creighton usually stay longer than 
any other preacher, because he could admin- 
ister the sacraments ? Therefore, how reason- 
able to conclude that Mr. Creighton's house 
127 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

in Bristol would be the old stand. But, alas, 
the higher critics have been at work upon 
Methodist history also. In this instance they 
have not spoiled some of our sermons, but some 
of our articles and histories. 

It is proved beyond a doubt that Mr. 
Creighton's home at that time was in Lon- 
don. He was then stationed at City Road 
Chapel, and Coke had to bring him down 
to Bristol with him to help in the ordina- 
tion. It is also certain that John Wesley, in 
the August of 1783, thirteen months before 
the ordination, had removed from the old 
chapel tenement to the house of John Castle- 
man ("C n"), surgeon, which is still stand- 
ing as No. 6 Dighton Street, King's Square. 
In September, 1901, we visited this correct spot, 
and then and there took back all we had said 
about Broadmead room being the place. In 
this house certainly were ordained Dr. Thomas 
Coke as superintendent, and Richard What- 
coat and Thomas Vasey, first as deacons, and 
then as elders, for America. Out of that front 
door they went with authority, and here be- 
gan the Methodist Episcopal Church of Amer- 
ica. Standing at that front door, we looked 
128 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



at the houses directly opposite from where we 
stood, and saw the residence of William Pine, 
Wesley's celebrated printer. Looking diag- 
onally across the small inclosed park in the 
middle of the square, we saw the house in 
which Adam Clarke and other early preachers 
lived. Close to it is the stone platform, now 
having a brick wall on top of it, on which 
Wesley stood so many times and preached to 
the people who filled in the large open space 
called Carolina Row. Mr. "C n" (Castle- 
man) was a surgeon at the infirmary near by. 
He lived in this house from 1771 until his 
death, in 1801. His widow lived here until 
1822. Wesley greatly admired Mrs. Castle- 
man. He knew her as a girl in Kingswood. 
He said Castleman did well when he chose 
"Miss Letitia Fisher, of this city." On writ- 
ing to his friend, Miss Bishop, who had opened 
a school at Keynsham, four miles from Bris- 
tol, he referred to Mrs. Castleman thus : "Good 
breeding I love ; but how difficult it is to keep 
clear of affectation and of something which 
does not even agree with that mind which was 
in Christ ! I want your children to be trained 
up as Miss Bosanquet's were. Although they 

9 129 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



were very genteel, yet there was something in 
their whole manner which told you that they 
belonged to another world. Mrs. Castleman 
is one of Molly Maddern's scholars. You see, 
she is genteel, yet she is a Christian." 

In 1782, Mr. Castleman was dangerously ill. 
John Wesley visited and helped him. This 
was in March. In August, 1783, Wesley was 
taken seriously ill at his room in the Horse 
Fair. He tried his own "primitive physic" 
until he made himself blind, deaf, and helpless 
with an overdose of opium. He was removed 
to his friend Castleman's home, where his doc- 
tor friend prescribed for him, and Mrs. Castle- 
man nursed him back to health again. Here- 
after this was his home in Bristol. In his 
room in this house, about thirteen months later, 
occurred the historic ordinations. Henceforth 
let no American Methodist go to Bristol un- 
less he agrees to visit the house, with three 
bay windows, still known as No. 6 Dighton 
Street, King's Square. No destructive critic, 
in the face of old Bristol directories and local 
references recently unearthed by a Methodist 
preacher named H. J. Foster, will ever dare 
to change this historic spot in Methodist Epis- 
130 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



copal history. Three minutes' walk would take 
us to another exact location recently unearthed ; 
but we are now writing of Coke, not of Charles 
Wesley, and have already described it. 

As we stood at this historic dwelling, now 
being used for business purposes, we remem- 
bered the delightful visit to lovely Brecon, 
where Coke was born ; to the old church where 
he was baptized; to Jesus College, Oxford, 
where he was educated ; to old South Petherton 
parish church, where he was curate when he 
was reached by the Methodists and received 
his baptism of the Holy Spirit, and of the 
Methodist spirit also. We thought of his first 
sight of a Methodist Conference, which he had 
at old Broadmead Chapel, only six minutes' 
walk from where he was ordained bishop 
eleven years later. W e also thought of his first 
journey to America to organize our Church 
in 1784, his later visits, and especially of his 
visit to the city of Boston in 1804. On his 
way to Boston from New .York he tarried a 
week at Providence, R. I. Arrangements had 
been made for his entertainment at the palatial 
residence of John Enos Clark, Esq., a wealthy 
citizen of Providence, whose carriage awaited 

131 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



his arrival. When he landed, he asked the 
dignitaries who met him if there were any 
Methodists in town. They knew of none. Mr. 
Shubal Cady, a class-leader, standing by, 
stepped up and said, "There is a small class." 
"Where do the Methodist preachers stop when 
they come to town?" asked Coke. At Mr. 
Turpin's the Quaker, he was told. Mr. Tur- 
pin, being present, took him home with him, 
all riding in Mr. Clark's (his would-be host) 
carriage. There he stopped for the week. He 
insisted on preaching, first of all, at the Meth- 
odist meeting-place, the Town House. He 
afterward gladly preached in the churches as 
invited. He showed himself a loyal Methodist 
on this occasion, as on so many others. 

After your patience in wading through the 
details of this correction as to the place of his 
ordination, it is but fair that I should show 
you my small collection of the writings of this 
really good and great little man. Here are 
two copies of "The Substance of a Sermon 
on the Godhead of Christ, preached at Balti- 
more, in the State of Maryland, on the 26th 
day of December, 1784, before the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
132 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



by Thomas Coke, LL. D., superintendent of 
the said Church. Published at the desire of 
the Conference. London : Printed by J. Para- 
more, for T. Scollick, Bookseller, City Road, 
and sold by all other booksellers in town and 
country. 1785." 

"The Substance I |of a| | Sermon, 1 1 Preached at 
Baltimore, 1 1 In the State of Maryland,] | Before 
the 1 1 General Conference 1 1 of the j | Methodist 
Episcopal Church, 1 1 on the 27th of December, 
1 784, 1 1 at the 1 1 Ordination 1 1 of the || Rev. Francis 
Asbury,||To the Office of a| | Superintendent.! | 
By Thomas Coke, LL. D.| | Superintendent of 
the said Church. 1 1 Published at the Desire of 
the Conference. 1 1 London : Printed by J. Para- 
more, || For T. Scollick, Bookseller, in the City 
Road, and sold by all || other Booksellers in 
Town and Country, 1785." 

Alongside these ancient and historic sermons 
stand original copies of the first and fifth Dis- 
ciplines. The First: "Minutes 1 1 Of Several 
Conversations 1 1 Between 1 1 The Rev. Thomas 
Coke, LL. D.||The Rev. Francis Asbury||And 
Others,] I At a Conference, Begun || In Balti- 
more In the State of Maryland, | j On Monday, 
the 27th, Of December, 1 1 In the Year 1784.H 

T 33 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Composing A Form Of Discipline 1 1 For the 
Ministers, Preachers And || Other Members of 
the Methodist 1 1 Episcopal Church In || America. 
| (Philadelphia:] | Printed b y Charles Cist, in 
Arch | (Street, the Corner of Fourth— Street. 1 1 
M,DCC,LXXXV." 

The fifth, "A Form of Discipline for the 
Ministers, Preachers, and Members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in America, con- 
sidered and approved at a Conference held at 
Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, on Mon- 
day, the 27th of December, 1784, in which 
Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury presided. 
Arranged under proper heads, and methodized 
in a more acceptable and easy manner, with 
some other useful pieces annexed. The fifth 
edition. New York. Printed by William 
Ross, in Broad Street. M. DCC. LXXXIX." 

The ''useful pieces annexed" are : "The 
Scripture Doctrine of Predestination, Election, 
and Reprobation. By the Rev. John Wesley, 
M. A., late Fellow of Lincoln College, Ox- 
ford." This is followed by "A Plain Account 
of Christian Perfection," etc., which, with 
"The Articles of Religion," etc., which pre- 
cedes it, adds one hundred and thirty-one 

134 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



pages to the fifty-five pages of this also rare 
copy of the Discipline. We lay these down 
with a sigh of relief that we have long ago 
given up the attempt to collect a perfect set of 
the many copies of our Discipline. 

"Extracts of the Journals of the Rev. Dr. 
Coke's Five Visits to America," London, 1793, 
195 pages, stands next on our Coke shelf, with 
"Coke on Europe," "Coke's Letters," "Four 
Discourses on the Duties of the Gospel Min- 
istry," 1798; "Funeral Sermon on the Death 
of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers," 1795 ; "The Sub- 
stance of a Sermon Preached in Baltimore and 
Philadelphia, on the 1st and 8th of May, 1791, 
on the Death of the Rev. John Wesley," Lon- 
don, 1 79 1. 

These are some of the rarest of my col- 
lection of Cokeiana, excepting a beautiful copy 
of the first edition of "A Commentary on the 
Holy Bible. By Thomas Coke, LL. D., of 
the University of Oxford. London. Printed 
for the author, and sold by G. Whitfield, 
City Road. 1801." The six quarto volumes 
on my shelves stand next to a copy of John 
Wesley's "Commentary on the Old Testa- 
ment," neither of which works can be called 
135 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



a success, though both represent much pains- 
taking toil of two of the three most honored 
fathers of the Methodist Church, Francis As- 
bury, the John Wesley of America, being the 
third in this trinity of Methodist pioneers and 
founders. 



136 



HISTORIC ORDINATIONS BY JOHN 
WESLEY 



No services in connection with our Annual 
and General Conferences are so solemnly im- 
portant as the ordination of Methodist preach- 
ers to the orders of deacon and elder, and to 
the sacred office of bishop. Just three miles 
from our study window is the old Central 
Burying-ground in Boston. It is at the south 
end of Boston Common. The roar of traffic 
along Tremont and Boylston Streets is daily 
heard around this quiet resting-place. The 
picks and spades of the excavators of the new 
subway touched its very edge. That cemetery, 
which we have just returned from exploring, 
is historically connected with John Wesley's 
first acts of ordination. There lies the dust of 
Mrs. Maria (Creighton) Odiorne, an early 
English Methodist, who became the wife of 
a very prominent Boston merchant who was 
one of the fourteen original founders of the 
historic Park Street Congregational Church, 
at the other end of Boston Common. Mrs. 



137 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Odiorne's father, Rev. James Creightom B. A., 
was one of the clergymen of the Church of 
Ireland who cast in his lot with John Wesley 
and his lay helpers. He assisted him in his 
first ordination services, which were done, not 
for English but for American Methodism. It 
is very probable that Methodist ordinations 
would never have been given but for American 
Methodism and its peculiar needs. None of 
the earliest pioneers who founded Methodism 
in America were ordained ministers ; not even 
those sent out by Wesley himself. Boardman 
and Pilmoor, who came to these shores in 
1769; Asbury and Wright, in 1 771; with Ran- 
kin and Shadford, in 1773, all were lay 
preachers. All Methodist preachers in Eng- 
land, save the few clergy of the Church of 
England, or of Ireland, like Creighton, and the 
few ordained by Bishop Erasmus, of Arcadia, 
in Crete, were unordained preachers. Some of 
these had been formally received by Wesley, 
as was Joseph Cownley in 1746, when, in 
Bristol, "He kneeled down, and Mr. Wesley, 
putting the New Testament into his hand, said, 
'Take thou authority to preach the gospel.' 
He then gave him his benediction." This was 

138 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



not by any regarded as ordination, but simply 
reception, for John Wesley ordained him in 
1788. Many preachers were never even thus 
formally received. 

The first Wesleyan ordinations were those 
of Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as 
deacons and elders, and of Rev. Thomas Coke, 
D. C. L., a presbyter of the Church of 
England, and one of the foremost of Wes- 
ley's preachers, as superintendent, or bishop, 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Amer- 
ica. This was done in Bristol, in John 
Wesley's room at Mr. Castleman's, 6 Dighton 
Street, King's Square. The date of this im- 
portant event is September 2, 1784. As this 
was done nearly ten weeks before Dr. Seabury 
was ordained for the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, our episcopate is older than that of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. Rev. James 
Creighton, B. A., was then stationed on the 
London Circuit, with John and Charles Wes- 
ley, and five other preachers. Dr. Coke, in 
obedience to Wesley's orders, brought him 
down to Bristol to assist in Wesley's first ordi- 
nations. Thus he had with him two presbyters, 
Coke and Creighton. On the first day they 

139 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ordained Whatcoat and Vasey as deacons ; next 
day they ordained them elders, and Dr. Coke 
as superintendent, or bishop. The original 
document that John Wesley gave Dr. Coke on 
the occasion we saw in the museum of the 
Methodist Mission House in London. We se- 
cured a facsimile. It reads : 

"To all to whom these presents shall come, 
"John Wesley, late Fellow of Lincoln College, 
in Oxford, Presbyter of the Church of Eng- 
land, sendcth greeting: 

Whereas many of the people in the South- 
ern Provinces of Xorth America, who desire 
to continue under my care, and still adhere 
to the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church 
of England, are greatly distrest for want of 
ministers to administer the Sacraments of Bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper, according to the 
usage of the said Church : And, whereas, there 
does not appear to be any other way of supply- 
ing them with ministers : 

"Know all men, that I, John Wesley, think 
myself to be providentially called at this time 
to set apart some persons for the work of the 
ministry in America. And therefore, under 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the protection of Almighty God, and with a 
single eye to his glory, I have this day set 
apart as a superintendent, by the imposition 
of my hands and prayer (being assisted by 
other ordained ministers), Thomas Coke, Doc- 
tor of Civil Law, a presbyter of the Church of 
England, and a man whom I judge to be well 
qualified for that great work. And I do hereby 
recommend him to all whom it may concern 
as a fit person to preside over the flock of 
Christ. In testimony whereof I have hereunto 
set my hand and seal this second day of Sep- 
tember in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-four. 

"John Wesusy." 

Concerning his authority to ordain, which 
his brother Charles always questioned, he re- 
fers in a letter dated August 19, 1785, saying: 
"I firmly believe I am a Scriptural episcopos 
as much as any man in England or in Europe. 
(For the uninterrupted succession I know to 
be a fable, which no man ever did or can 
prove.)" The father of Mrs. Maria (Creigh- 
ton) Odiorne, wife of Alderman and State 
Senator Odiorne, of Boston, Mass., assisted 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Wesley in these, his first ordinations, and 
helped him give deacons, elders, and bishops 
to American Methodism, and ordained min- 
isters to British Methodism. These services 
were strictly private, and were held at four 
o'clock in the morning. They were ordained 
deacons September I, and elders, and bishop 
September 2, 1784. The next day three more 
(unnamed) were added. Including these six 
for America, John Wesley ordained only thirty 
of his preachers, twenty-four of whom were 
for Great Britain. The most important of 
these was that of Alexander Mather, on 
Wednesday and Thursday, August 6 and 7, 
1788, to the office of superintendent, as he 
had ordained Thomas Coke in 1784. His last 
ordinations were of Mr. Moore, his legatee and 
biographer, and Thomas Rankin, who had 
pioneered in America, but was then settled in 
London. These were ordained on Ash 
Wednesday, February 25, and Friday, Feb- 
ruary 27, 1789, about two years before he went 
up to his coronation. Doubtless John Wes- 
ley, knowing that Methodism in England 
would wholly separate from the State Church, 
chose for it the episcopal polity ; but the timid 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



British Methodists were afraid to venture. In 
1794 a few valiant spirits tried to rally under 
the episcopal standard, but the attempt failed. 
Even ordination by the laying on of hands 
was discontinued for awhile. There are no 
deacons now in British Methodism. Each suc- 
cessful probationer of four years' standing is 
then ordained once for all. None but mission- 
aries receive parchments. Bishop Coke seems 
to have introduced that custom for them. If 
Wesley did not intend Methodism the world 
over to become episcopal, why did he ordain 
Dr. Coke and Alexander Mather to the office 
of superintendent or bishop? The Church of 
England party in the British Conferences of 
1791-92-93-94 frustrated Wesley's design for 
a British Methodist Episcopal Church. There 
has been, year after year, a steady stream of 
Wesleyan Methodists flowing into the Church 
of England, which is episcopal in its polity, 
and which, perhaps, might have been prevented 
had the Mother Conference followed the ex- 
ample of her eldest daughter in America, the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 



143 



IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF METHOD- 
ISM'S GREATEST COMMENTA- 
TOR, DR. ADAM CLARKE 



Landing at Liverpool, we came to the an- 
cient English city of Bristol in about six and 
a half hours. Just about one hundred and 
eighteen years before may have been seen a cler- 
ical-looking Irish youth, who had just landed 
from a Londonderry vessel. He is about 
twenty years of age, a little above medium 
height, thin and pale, and clerically dressed. 
That loose, straight coat and broad triangular 
hat had saved him from being taken, during 
the voyage, by a pressgang who boarded the 
ship. He also is bound for Bristol. His bag- 
gage is of but little care to him, for he wore 
the most of his wardrobe. A parcel of four 
books, an English Bible, a Greek Testament, 
Prideaux's "Connexion," and Young's "Night 
Thoughts," are more to him than raiment. He 
boarded himself during the voyage, and in- 
144 



H 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



tends doing so on the journey to Bristol. His 
bill of fare consisted of bread and cheese only 
during all the voyage. We contrasted this with 
that on board the splendid Cunarder we had 
just left. 

Captain Cunningham was so impressed with 
the conduct of this young man on board that 
he took him to his home, and entertained him, 
free of cost, until ready to start for Bristol. 
This Irish youth is Adam Clarke, who, in his 
native land, has been reached by the Meth- 
odists, converted, and advised to preach the 
gospel. They have also recommended him to 
John Wesley for admission to his school at 
Kingswood, near Bristol. The good man had 
sent word for him to come, and he is now 
going, with high ideas of both Mr. Wesley 
and his school. In prospect of a good educa- 
tion, what to him are clothes, big dinners, etc. ? 
We took the train to the old city. He took 
the old, lumbering stage-coach, miscalled "The 
Fly," an outside seat, and in a few days was 
jolted into the old city. On the last of these 
days he could afford only three cents for food, 
two of which he spent for bread, and one for 
apples. 

10 I45 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



The coach set him down in Broadmead, at 
the Greyhound Hotel, which is still standing, 
nearly opposite the first Methodist church in 
the world, and the home of Wesley, which for 
nearly forty years was his headquarters in the 
West of England. Clarke does not seem to 
have known that he was so near Wesley's 
chapel and home, or he would have reported 
there at once. Instead of this, with only thirty- 
nine cents left, he enters the hotel, calls for 
bread and cheese, and, to the disgust of the 
waiter, water instead of beer. After this frugal 
meal he retires for the night. In the morning 
he pays his bill of twenty-four cents, and gives 
twelve to the chambermaid for caring for him. 
Having only three cents left, breakfast is out 
of the question ; therefore he took an early and 
hungry start for Kingswood, about five miles 
from the city, to the first school of Methodism. 

As we walked along the streets of the city 
which lead out to Kingswood, during our 
visit to that place, we thought of the young 
Irish emigrant and his opening career. We 
wondered if, as he passed up Lawrence Hill, 
he thought of Charles Wesley quelling the 
riotous mob by his presence and words of kind- 
146 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ness. Clarke reached Kingswood in time to 
hear the sermon at the seven o'clock service in 
the school chapel. Mr. Simpson was then the 
schoolmaster. He gave him Mr. Wesley's let- 
ter bidding him come, but was coldly received 
by the master, and unkindly treated by his cruel 
wife, who, from the first, conceived a strong 
prejudice against the young Irishman. Simp- 
son told him that, as he had received no word 
concerning him, he had better go back to Bris- 
tol, and wait until Mr. Wesley arrived from 
Cornwall. How could he, with only three cents 
in the wide world ? He must stay, and stay he 
did. He met nothing but unkindness at Kings- 
wood at the first. Mrs. Simpson declared he 
had "the itch," and, giving him some of "Jack- 
son's Ointment," which Clarke called "an in- 
fernal unguent," to anoint himself with, they 
had him shut up "in a room at the end of the 
chapel." 

We inspected that room, and took a cam- 
era picture of it, and again listened to the 
story as told by the then Reform School 
governor, Major Jerram, who most kindly 
showed us all the points of interest in the old 
school. But God raised up a friend at Kings- 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



wood for his young servant. Rev. Thomas 
Rankin, who had returned from America, after 
holding the first three Methodist Conferences 
there, was now circuit preacher. At the band- 
meeting he met Clarke, and heard his testi- 
mony, and became partial to him. He speaks 
of Rankin as showing him the first kindness 
at Kingswood. He sent him to Mangots- 
field to meet a class, and to Downend, both 
near by, to preach. This was Clarke's first 
public address in England. (We, too, preached 
in the chapel there.) 

One day, whilst digging in the Kingswood 
garden, Clarke found a half-guinea, but could 
not find the owner of it. One of the masters, 
named Bailey, had published a Hebrew Gram- 
mar, just such a one as Clarke badly needed. 
With the half-guinea he subscribed for it, and 
with it began his studies, which resulted in 
his well-known Commentary. In that garden 
the new Reform School buildings are now 
erected. 

Early in September, Mr. Wesley reached 
Bristol, and sent for Clarke. Mr. Rankin met 
him at the old chapel door, and led him up to 
Mr. Wesley's room, which we have just left, 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



and, introducing the youth to John Wesley, 
left him in his care. The conversation in that 
room was short. We could imagine ourselves 
listening to it. "Well, Brother Clarke, do you 
wish to devote yourself entirely to the work 
of God?" "Sir, I wish to do and be what God 
pleases." We could seem to see him lay his 
fatherly hands upon the young Irish preach- 
er's head, and spend a few moments in prayer 
for his success in the world, just as Dr. Clarke, 
many years later, wrote and said he did. 
Clarke returned to Kingswood with a glad 
heart. After a few days word came from Mr. 
Wesley that Adam Clarke was to go on to 
the Bradford Circuit. Thus he began his itin- 
erant ministry. 

Just eight years after this he was appointed 
to this very Bristol Circuit, at the head of 
which was Broadmead Chapel, where he first 
met Mr. Wesley, and nearly opposite where 
he spent his first night in the old city. His 
pastorate in Bristol was opportune, for here 
he was wondrously active in helping forward 
the movement which resulted in opening Meth- 
odist chapels during Church of England serv- 
ice hours, and the administration of the sac- 



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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



raments by Methodist preachers. Good old 
Captain Thomas Webb, "a chief founder" of 
American Methodism, then a resident of Bris- 
tol, found in Adam Clarke a great helper in 
the new departure, which made Methodism an 
independent Church, and not a mere annex to 
the Church of England. The oldest two 
chapels now owned by the Wesleyans of this 
old city are Portland, on Kingsdown, which 
held its centennial services in 1892, and 
Ebenezer, in old King Street, which did the 
same in 1895. Both chapels were largely 
helped in their inception and progress by him 
who became "Dr. Adam Clarke, the great 
Bible commenter and Methodist preacher." 



150 



OUR SOLDIER FOUNDER'S MAUSO- 
LEUM 



August 26, 1792, is a red-letter day in the 
Methodist calendar. Then was dedicated what 
was in all probability the most beautiful of 
all Methodist chapels in the then world-ex- 
tending Methodism. It still stands in its 
strength and beauty, and has celebrated with 
great success its centennial services. It is on 
Portland Street, Kingsdown, Bristol, England, 
and is known as Portland Chapel. It ought 
to be called the Methodist cathedral of the 
west of England, so full is it of historic in- 
terest to English, and especially to American, 
Methodists. It is now added to the Methodist 
tourist's itinerary. We met an American on 
the way, camera in hand, and knew that others 
were coming to visit this shrine. 

In order to reach it from the railway termi- 
nus, we pass Temple Church, out of which 
Charles Wesley and his colliers were driven 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



from the sacramental table. Near by was 
Weavers' Hall, where John Wesley preached 
some of his very earliest Bristol sermons. 
Crossing Bristol Bridge at the end of Temple 
Street, we stand at the foot of Baldwin and 
Nicholas Streets, where John Wesley preached 
to the "societies," which had rooms there, 
on Sunday, April I, 1739, his first day in this 
old city. We search in vain for these so- 
ciety rooms. Modern improvements have de- 
stroyed them. We "move on" up High Street, 
and pass Wine Street, where lived the White- 
fields, and where Southey, Wesley's biog- 
rapher, was born ; then, passing down Broad 
Street, we soon reach the remains of a city 
gate, over which is St. John's Church, where 
George Whitefield, who introduced Methodism 
into the city, was deeply convicted of sin, and 
was sent off to school to study for the min- 
istry. 

Only a few rods distant, in Nelson Street, 
are the great warehouses of the Budgetts, 
wholesale grocers. The founder of the firm 
was "The Successful Merchant," whose biog- 
raphy, written by the saintly author of "The 
Tongue of Fire," has been an inspiration to 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



many English and American young men, some 
of whom have laid the fortunes they made 
at the feet of the Master and the service of 
Methodism, as he did. Continuing along Nel- 
son Street, we come to Broadmead, and pass 
Robert Hall's Baptist church, and, on the same 
side of the street, John Wesley's first chapel, 
standing at the end of a long stone-flagged 
passage ; but we can not enter now ; we must 
hasten on our way to Spring Hill, which leads 
on to Kingsdown. Before reaching the hill 
we must pass Charles Street, near Stokes 
Croft, to which Charles Wesley brought his 
bride, and where he lived and wrote the most 
of his hymns for about twenty-two years. 
Passing through King's Square, we note the 
spot where John Wesley used to preach in 
the open air. Having climbed the hill, with 
its many stone steps, we soon reach Portland 
Street and its historic chapel. First we walk 
about this Zion, and note the historic Meth- 
odist names engraved upon the tombstones 
and monuments. No Methodist burial-ground, 
outside of City Road, London, is so rich in 
"bonnie dust" as this. Four ex-presidents of 
the British Conference, and very many noted 

153 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



local preachers and other la) T men (including 
women), are among the more than two thou- 
sand buried there. 

We enter the spacious auditorium. Every- 
thing speaks of sacredness and prosperity. The 
walls are filled with memorial tablets. The 
pews, with desks for Bibles, hymn-books, and 
prayer-books ; the kneeling-boards, so that 
Methodists may "kneel before the Lord their 
Maker," and all the appointments of the place 
are scrupulously clean, and are suggestive of 
devotion. In one of the new windows near the 
gallery, we see a portrait in ''burnt glass," 
carefully set into the window. It is the fa- 
miliar face of one of the chief founders of 
American Methodism, the soldier-preacher, 
Captain Thomas Webb. We sit down before 
it, and talk of him and his work for God 
and Methodism in the homeland we have left. 
We see him in that same uniform enter the 
first Methodist meetings in New York, to the 
surprise of Embury and Barbara Heck. We 
see him give them each and all a good Meth- 
odist handshake at the close of the service, and 
hear him tell them he is "John Wesley's friend 
and a local preacher," and that his talents, 

154 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



purse, and all are at the service of God and 
Methodism. We could see him preaching in 
the "Rigging-loft," and giving and begging 
for the first Methodist church in America, on 
John Street, New York. We pictured him 
pioneering the cause in Philadelphia, and there 
buying what is now the oldest Methodist 
church in America — St. George's Methodist 
Episcopal Church. We seemed to hear his 
cry sent over the waters to Wesley for help- 
ers in this new country; then, because they 
did not come fast enough, he sails off to fetch 
them; and we wonder not that our Methodist 
Macaulay says, "I have not hesitated to pro- 
nounce him the principal founder of the de- 
nomination in the United States." (Stevens's 
"History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," 
I, p. 172.) But what does he here, so far from 
the great Church whose foundations he helped 
to lay? In Bristol he was born, and also 
"born again." From the old city he went to 
America. To it he returned to end his days. 
Like Bishop Coke, he returned to England 
at a crucial point of Methodist history. The 
new Methodist Episcopal Church of America 
had begun to influence English Methodism in 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the direction of freedom from Church of Eng- 
land rule. The Methodist soldier and the 
bishop saw that Bristol was to lead off the 
movement. The captain chafed under the re- 
straints of English Methodism as felt in Bris- 
tol, and went to work at his old business of 
founding Churches. Almost immediately after 
Mr. Wesley's death he bought the land for 
this chapel. He gave ten guineas, and begged 
twenty-five pounds besides. Dr. Coke, whom 
they feared to call bishop in England, gave 
twenty-five pounds five shillings ; thus we were 
well represented on that subscription-list. 
August 26, 1792, it was opened. Samuel Brad- 
burn preached the sermon, much to the dis- 
comfort of Vicar Edwards, of that parish, who 
was present as a hearer. English Methodists 
in 1892 lived those days over again in cele- 
brating the centennial of this historic place, 
which links the Methodism of the two con- 
tinents. 

A mural tablet near the pulpit tells us that 
the mortal remains of the soldier-preacher and 
founder lie near. His vault is directly under 
the communion-table in the apse. When, under 
the leadership of Henry Moore, the stand 
156 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was taken for freedom to worship God in 
church hours, and have sacraments from the 
hands of Methodist preachers, the great con- 
gregation followed Moore from the old first 
chapel up the hill to "Portland," and here 
found asylum until they built in old King 
Street, in 1795, the Ebenezer Chapel, where 
Coke, Adam Clarke, Bradburn, and other 
masters of the art often preached and per- 
formed all the offices of the Christian min- 
istry. The more than $5,000 raised during 
the centennial services has given a new organ, 
paid off an old debt on adjoining school prop- 
erty, and aids a city mission carried on by 
the Church. Thus the memory and spirit of 
the Methodist soldier-preacher and founder 
is perpetuated in connection with this beauti- 
ful sanctuary, which we regard as the mauso- 
leum of Captain Thomas Webb. A few weeks 
ago we searched old John Street Church, New 
York, in vain to find even the name of this 
honored man who gave and did so much 
towards founding that first Methodist church 
in America. Would Western Methodists be 
so forgetful had he only begun there? 

By what seemed to us a strange series of 

157 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



providences, it became our duty and privi- 
lege to preach in this old sanctuary on our last 
Sunday in England, September 22, 1901, the 
Sunday after the Third Ecumenical Methodist 
Conference closed in London. We were sent 
there as a delegate. The church, as usual, was 
well filled. The opening services, from the 
Book of Common Prayer, still used on Sun- 
day mornings in this old church, were de- 
voutly read by a resident local preacher. For 
the sermon, we entered the little, old, tub pul- 
pit, in which Captain Webb, whose remains 
are in a vault within a few feet of it, and 
Bishop Coke, and a long line of Methodist 
worthies had stood and preached. The 
thought of these, and the fact that the last time 
we stood there was thirty-one years before, 
when we tremblingly entered it to preach a 
trial sermon as a candidate for the Methodist 
ministry, these thoughts were almost too much 
for us. "We felt like an ''ambassador in bonds" 
in the morning, but had liberty in the even- 
ing. That is now a red-letter day in our cal- 
endar. 



158 



APPROACHING THE METHODIST 
* CATHEDRAL 



Much has been said and written of City 
Road Chapel and Wesley's house in London. 
Very much more will be said of this, "the 
"cathedral of Methodism/' and Methodists 
everywhere will be interested listeners. We 
now propose to talk of a near approach to it, 
which we find to be classic ground in earliest 
Methodism. City Road is in the north of 
London. Doubtless the labors of the Wesleys 
and Whitefield did much towards "booming" 
that section of this city, and changing it from 
fields — "Moorfields" — to the, in many in- 
stances, palatial residences of the well-to-do 
people. 

Before reaching Bunhill Fields Cemetery, 
with City Road Chapel directly opposite, we 
came to Finsbury Square, on the same side 
of the road as the chapel. The buildings look 
well built, and such they are ; for John Nelson, 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the stonemason, friend, and helper of John 
Wesley — he who helped him in his Cornish 
travels, privations, and toils — this same John 
Nelson helped build these houses more than 
a century and a quarter ago. By daylight he 
wrought stones for those buildings. Before 
and after daylight he labored in the low-moral 
quarries near by, whence he hewed stones with 
which to build up the temple of the Lord in 
that community; for he preached the gospel 
at 5 A. M., and also in the evenings. 

The first London Methodist society was com- 
posed of many converts under his morning 
and evening ministry, in the open air, and in 
the "Foundry" meetings close by the square. 
Who can estimate how much Methodism owes 
to her lay preachers ? We expect the Epworth 
League movement will call out large num- 
bers to fill the depleted ranks, and restore the 
almost lost order of local preachers in America. 

Let me tell you how John Nelson unde- 
signedly drew a crowd of his fellow-masons 
and builders to hear him. Look at him! He 
is six feet high, and stout in proportion. Be- 
fore his conversion he had fought and won 
many a battle. Now the old fights are given 
1 60 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



up, and "the fight of faith" is begun. The 
old physical strength yet remains to defend 
Mr. Wesley and himself when he needs must 
call it into exercise. One day, whilst work- 
ing on those houses, trowel in hand, and per- 
haps his evening sermon in mind, up came 
a big fellow, called the "Essex Giant," who 
announced to Nelson his errand, which was 
to see who was master, he or Nelson. To 
his taunts Nelson replied, "Be quiet, and let 
me alone." He would not take this good ad- 
vice, but, as though "spoiling for a fight," be- 
gan to strip, and even seized the busy, toiling 
hand of Nelson, much to the interest of his 
fellow-workmen, who were waiting to see what 
the Methodist mason and preacher would do. 
Nelson paused a moment to look into the 
fiendish eyes of his assailant; then, suddenly 
catching hold of the large belt around the 
fellow's waist, held him up to the gaze of his 
fellow-workmen; then dropped him on the 
ground, so kindly that he was able to get up 
and slowly hobble away, a wiser and better 
man than when he came into the hands of 
the Methodist mason. The Finsbury Square 
masons hereafter believed more earnestly in 
ii 161 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Nelson's piety and strength, and largely in- 
creased his early morning and evening con- 
gregations in the old cannon foundry close 
by. Professors tell ministerial students that 
all kinds of knowledge may be found useful 
to the preacher. Not a few of the pioneers on 
both sides of the Atlantic have found precon- 
version knowledge of the Nelson kind useful 
to them in defense of the gospel. 

But where is "The Foundry," the first 
Methodist preaching-place in London, and 
where John Nelson often preached? It was 
near to Finsbury Square, where he toiled. 
Leaving the square, in which afterwards lived 
wealthy Methodists, and going towards City 
Road Chapel, which Wesley sometimes called 
"The New Foundery," only a little more than 
a block away is Windmill Street, with the 
police court on the southwest corner. On this 
site, and up to the next open space on the 
right-hand side, stood, in Nelson's day, the 
old cannon foundry, which had been leased, 
remodeled, and furnished for chapel uses, seat- 
ing about fifteen hundred people. Also, Wes- 
ley's home, where lived and died "St. Su- 
sannah, the mother of Methodism," and the 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

president of the first Epworth League, in July, 
1742, after about three years' residence in this, 
the first Methodist meeting-house and home 
in great London. 

As late as 1868, within a gateway on the 
right-hand side of Windmill Street, may have 
been seen some remains of the buildings first 
used as a cannon foundry, afterwards as the 
Methodist fort, which Wesley and his helpers 
held for about forty years. From November, 
1739, when Wesley first preached there, until 
January, 1743, the society had grown from 
none to 523 members and 219 probationers, 
watched over by sixty-six class-leaders — 
women leaders for women, men for men. No 
mixed classes in those days. The sexes also 
took sides in the public congregations at the 
Foundry and elsewhere, even until recent 
times. From this Methodist fort issued Ar- 
minian shot and shell, the sound of which was 
heard around the world. The catalogue of 
books, which is dated 1742, only three years 
after the Foundry was opened, includes thirty 
works. Here also was projected the Arminian 
Magazine, which is to-day, next to Wesley's 
Journals, the richest mine of early Methodist 
163 



/ 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



wealth. Methodists have been so busy mak- 
ing history that but few have been detailed 
to gather and write it up. Some Epworthian 
will be called to delve in these rich mines and 
bring up treasures for the joy and inspiration 
of the workers all along the line. The site of 
the old foundry will prove to be very rich 
soil. It may be found as you approach City 
Road Chapel— "the cathedral of Methodism." 



164 



THE CATHEDRAL OF METHODISM, 
AND JOHN WESLEY'S HOUSE 

Millions of eyes will, during the bicen- 
tennial year of the birth of John Wesley, turn 
toward City Road Chapel, and Wesley's house, 
which adjoins it, in London. That chapel is 
the cathedral of Methodism; that house is the 
place where John Wesley took his "last tri- 
umphant flight from Calvary's to Zion's 
height," on Wednesday, March 2, 1791. We 
will now wend our steps to these sacred spots. 
Starting from the Bank of England north- 
ward along the main thoroughfare for about 
half a mile, we come to Bunhill (Bone-hill) 
Fields Burying-ground, on the left-hand side 
of City Road; and on the right, directly op- 
posite that historic city of the dead, stands 
the last earthly home of John Wesley ; also 
the chapel, with graveyards on its sides and 
in its rear, which make this shrine unique in 
the history of worldwide Methodism. 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



In Bunhill Fields, besides the dust of the 
Cromwells, Henry and Richard ; John Bunyan, 
John Owen, D. D., Daniel Defoe, and many 
other notables, including Dr. Isaac Watts, 
whose hymns stand side by side in many books 
with those of her own son Charles, lies the 
sacred dust of Susannah Wesley, the mother 
of Methodism. On leaving Epworth, she made 
London her home until she entered the home 
above. A monument to her memory stands 
in the south graveyard near the sidewalk, 
from which you turn to enter the precincts 
of the chapel. It is fittingly inscribed. Hav- 
ing now passed through the great iron gates, 
which open inward from the sidewalk, we ap- 
proach the chapel, which stands about seven 
rods distant, with graveyards on each side 
of the carriage-way and in the rear. This was 
the first city of the dead owned by Methodists. 
Here have been laid the bodies of 5,450 per- 
sons, many of whom were pioneers and found- 
ers of the Church of our love and choice. 

Mrs. Wesley's monument fittingly stands 
in the forefront, in sight of every passer-by. 
Near it, on the same right-hand side of the 
entrance, is "The Preachers' Grave," which 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



is a vault now filled with the bones of early 
itinerants who rest from their labors. The 
chapel presents quite a modern appearance, 
although it remains very nearly the same as 
when built in 1778. Before the first Meth- 
odist chapel in the world, which still stands 
in Bristol, was finished, John Wesley leased 
the old Foundry, which stood not far from 
the site of City Road Chapel, but not a vestige 
of which can be found on the old spot to-day. 
Renovating it, he made it his London head- 
quarters for thirty-eight years, until the pres- 
ent chapel was built. The story of thirty- 
eight years of Methodist cannonading at the 
old Foundry would be an interesting one; but 
we are standing within the outer gates and 
looking at the exterior of its successor, the 
cathedral of Methodism. John Wesley laid 
its foundation-stone in the presence of a great 
multitude of tain-drenched Londoners, on 
Monday, April 21, 1777. Standing on the 
newly-laid stone, and between the showers, he 
preached from Numbers xxiii, 23. On No- 
vember 1, 1778, he preached the opening ser- 
mons of the dedication. Eleven months after 
this the Wesley House, at our right, was built 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



for John Wesley and his preachers. It was an 
early itinerants' home. The chapel then had no 
portico in front; this was added in 1815. The 
cornice and balustrades which hide the front 
roof are also modern. On the left of the en- 
trance stands a new block of buildings called 
the Benson classrooms, because erected on the 
site of the old house, which was first the Book 
Concern, and afterward the home of Joseph 
Benson, where he wrote his "Commentary on 
the Bible," which did such good service in 
its day. In that old house the preacher, com- 
mentator, and Book Steward died, February 
16, 1823. He was buried in the rear of the 
chapel, only a few feet from John Wesley's 
grave. The new buildings bear his name, and 
are used for tea-meetings, young people's read- 
ing-rooms, parlors, mothers' meetings, etc. 

The historic Morning Chapel is now hid- 
den from view by a vestibule connecting the 
large chapel, the Benson classrooms and the 
Morning Chapel in the rear. An engraving 
of City Road as it was in the beginning ap- 
pears in the second volume of the Arminian 
Magazine, which was projected during the 
building of the new chapel. Its first volume 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



appeared on January I, 1778. John Wesley 
declared the structure, at its opening, "per- 
fectly neat, but not fine." 

Before entering, we will pass around the 
chapel to the graveyard in its rear. On the 
right we find the tombs of that king of men 
among the early Methodists, Dr. Jabez Bunting, 
and of the beloved physician and local preacher, 
Dr. Hamilton, once well known in both bodily 
and spiritual ministries at City Road. The 
main attraction is reached by passing through 
another iron gate into the ground, in the cen- 
ter of which is Wesley's grave, with a high 
monument reared above it, all of which is care- 
fully railed around, probably to save the monu- 
ment from the vandalism of American tourists, 
who are so fond of souvenirs from historic 
spots. One of the caretakers met this demand 
by frequently planting flowers near by, which 
he sold to visitors as ingeniously as could any 
live Yankee. Adjoining Wesley's grave is 
that of Dr. Adam Clarke, also iron-railed all 
around. Thus the commentators, Clarke and 
Benson, lie near each other, and Richard Wat- 
son, the theologian of early Methodism, rests 
near by. Near these lie Thomas Rankin, the 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



president of the first Conference in America; 
Samuel Bradburn, the "Prince of Preachers 
Henry Moore, Wesley's legatee and biog- 
rapher; and many other wise master-builders 
of our beloved Church. 

We will now return to the front of the 
chapel, and, passing through the portico, see 
the interior. Before doing so, we must apply 
at the little house on our right, and in the 
rear of Wesley's house, where lives the sexton. 
He and his family are expecting us, having 
watched us looking around for the past half- 
hour. He leads us into this Methodist shrine. 
"How modern !" we exclaim. "Yes," he re- 
sponds ; "it 's been done up since the fire." He 
refers to the fire which, in December, 1879, 
consumed the Morning Chapel, some pews of 
the large chapel, scorched the old pulpit, 
cracked the mural tablets, and spoiled the old 
ceiling, and came so near to the destruction 
of the whole of the buildings. It has been 
restored as nearly as possible to what it was, 
with some tasteful additions harmonizing with 
the old features. It was threatened with fire 
in December, 1780, just ninety-nine years be- 
fore the fire of December, 1879. It was saved, 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



in 1780, in answer to the prayers of John Wes- 
ley and his guests, whom he had called from 
their beds at midnight and showed the chapel 
all lighted up with the fire only about one hun- 
dred yards away. Before going out into the 
midst of the surging crowd, they prayed God 
to save the chapel. On reaching the outside, 
almost the first cry that fell upon their ears 
was that of a sailor, "Avast ! the wind has 
changed !" So it had, to the direction away 
from the chapel, and it was saved; but not 
wholly so in 1879. 

Let us now look around the interior. There 
still stands the Wesley pulpit and reading-desk, 
now used by the precentor. All this is of 
Spanish mahogany, highly polished. The 
ground-floor pews seat 656 persons. On three 
sides is a large gallery which seats 720 more. 
If needs be, sixteen hundred can be cared 
for in the chapel. Around the front . of 
the gallery are medallions of John Wesley's 
own design — a circle made by a serpent in- 
closing a dove bearing in its mouth an olive- 
branch. 

Why does not the Epworth League adopt 
this device? It contains more dove than ser- 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



pent, and may suggest that in its methods of 
bearing peace to the young of Methodism, 
while using the wisdom of the serpent, it holds 
in very large proportions the harmlessness of 
the dove. 

The memorial windows within the altar-rails 
are modern and very beautiful. The mural 
tablets and monuments are replete with Meth- 
odist history, biographically presented. Lack 
of space forbids all but the briefest mention 
of some of these. 

Within the communion-rails on the south 
side of the pulpit are beautifully carved and 
inscribed tablets to Dr. Clarke, near the floor. 
Dr. Thomas Coke, the organizer of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and its first bishop, 
has a tablet just above it ; and above it again 
is one to Charles Wesley. Thus, Dr. Coke's 
is placed in the middle, between Methodism's 
greatest poet and commentator. Biblical in- 
terpretation, song, and missions form a power- 
ful trinity of powers for the redemption of 
this world to Jesus Christ. Just outside the 
altar rail is the Rev. Richard Watson's beau- 
tiful monument. Thus the systematic theo- 
logian's stands beside the other three; and 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

next beyond him is the memorial to Sir Francis 
Lycett, the English Methodist nobleman, 
whose money was consecrated to supplement- 
ing the work of the other four in carrying the 
results of their studies and labors to perish- 
ing multitudes. 

Between the south side monuments is one 
of the splendid "Waddy columns/' which stand 
at the angles of the altar-rail, the gift of 
S. D. Waddy, Esq., Queen's Counsel, etc., 
himself a Methodist local preacher, given at a 
cost of four thousand dollars, in memory of 
his father, the Rev. Dr. Waddy, who, after 
a life of preat prominence and usefulness in 
the Wesleyan ministry, died in Bristol in 1876, 
aged seventy-two years. Passing over to the 
north side of the altar, we find the base of its 
Waddy column suitably inscribed to the doc- 
tor's memory. Inside the altar are three tab- 
lets standing one above the other, as do those 
on the right-hand side. The lower one is 
Joseph Benson's, the middle one John 
Fletcher's, and the upper one is John Wes- 
ley's. Each has carved emblems well suggest- 
ing the work of their lives. Just outside the 
rail is a monument to Dr. Bunting, which cor- 

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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

responds to Watson's, at the other end of the 
altar-rail. Then follows one to Dr. Jobson, 
placed as is that of Sir Francis on the other 
side. 

Chief among these, near by, are the monu- 
ments of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer, John Wes- 
ley's nearest lady friend, who closed his eyes 
in death, and who alone wrote up the scene, 
signing herself "E. R." (Miss Elizabeth 
Ritchie). Her husband was a trustee of 
twenty-three years' standing. On the north 
wall, near by, the chief monument we noticed 
was that of Dr. Punshon and his lifelong 
friend, Dr. Gervase Smith, both well known 
in America, and the former throughout all 
Methodism. On leaving this sanctuary for 
Wesley's home, which adjoins it on the south 
side, we feel as we do on leaving Westminster 
Abbey, where also is a monument to the broth- 
ers, John and Charles Wesley, at the unveil- 
ing of which the late Dean Stanley spoke of 
the Methodists so fraternally. 

Is not this our Methodist Abbey? What 
notable Conferences and other historic gath- 
erings have been held in this holy place ! Here, 
at the Conference of 1785, Mr. Wesley an- 

174 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



nounced that he had appointed Dr. Coke and 
Francis Asbury as joint superintendents over 
the brethren in North America, and also that 
Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey were 
sent to act as elders among them. These were 
the first bishops and elders of Methodism, 
made such by Mr. Wesley's first acts of ordi- 
nation. Many other notable Conferences and 
other gatherings were held herein between that 
time and the Ecumenical Council of 1881. A 
series of intensely interesting services were 
held in the centennial year of John Wesley's 
death in 1891. Doubtless great meetings will 
be held in the bicentennial of his birth, in 
1903. 

We will now enter Wesley's house, by pass- 
ing out through the front graveyard and the 
sidewalk gates to the front of the house. It 
is a plain four-storied house, with a little 
flower garden in front leading up to the front 
door, which is about three rods from the side- 
walk. John Wesley first entered here to live 
after his preaching tour in Bristol and vicinity, 
and Wales, October 8, 1779. Under that date 
he writes, "This night I lodged in the new 
house at London ; how many more nights have 

175 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



I to spend there?" Here he lodged many of 
his preachers, some of whom, in December, 
1787, he sent to bed at nine o'clock, so that 
they might be better able to rise and attend 
the five o'clock services in the Morning Chapel. 

At one of these services, in 1788, the death 
of Charles Wesley was first published. Mr. 
Wesley's own rooms were on the first floor. 
His living-room was the front one ; his study 
and bedroom were in the back part of the same 
floor. Adjoining his sleeping-room is a small 
room which he used for retirement, medita- 
tion, and prayer. 

Scarcely was he settled in his new home, 
before burglars entered and stole about seven 
pounds' worth of money and goods, includ- 
ing Mr. Wesley's silver spoons, of which he 
had written, on making his plate returns for 
taxation: "I have two silver spoons at London, 
and two at Bristol. I shall not buy any more 
whilst so many poor w T ant bread." The Lon- 
don burglars relieved him of those, and would 
have taken more plunder but for the misplaced 
alarm, which, striking at 3.30 instead of 4 
o'clock, scared them out of the house. We 
enter first his parlor, then examine the few 

176 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



and well-preserved Wesley relics. They in- 
clude Wesley's clock, an old, long-cased, eight- 
day, which still keeps correct time, and a four- 
quart Wedgewood teapot, rather the worse for 
wear as to its spout; its lid also has gone the 
way of all crockery. It has the grace before 
and after meat inscribed on its sides, which 
is still used at Wesleyan tea-meetings. We 
sat in Wesley's chair, in which all presidents 
of London Conferences, and favored tourists 
also, sit. His large bookcase, and also his 
bureau with book-shelves on top, inside of 
the doors of which are portraits of preachers, 
taken from magazines, and said to have been 
pasted there by John Wesley's own hands — 
all this furniture is wonderfully well-preserved, 
and is simply priceless. His side-table was 
the last piece inspected. The most interest- 
ing place to us was the room in which he 
closed his eyes to earth. His dearest lady 
friend, Mrs. Mortimer, tells the story. 

In the next chapter we will tell of his swan- 
song, and his home-bringing to die. 



12 



177 



JOHN WESLEY'S SWAN-SONG OF 
FREEDOM 



On Sunday, September 8, 1901, as a dele- 
gate to the third Ecumenical Conference, then 
in session in London, we were appointed to 
preach at Balham. Had we been asked to 
choose, this would have been the place, be- 
cause of its most interesting Wesley associa- 
tions. It is in the southwest of London, on 
the Surrey side. Immediately after morning 
service, we asked to be taken to what was 
once Balham Hall, the residence of George 
Wolff, Esq., formerly consul general in the 
court of Denmark, and later the Danish consul 
in England, a very dear friend of John Wes- 
ley, who made him one of his three executors. 
Mr. Wolff was a Dane by birth, and evidently 
a man of large means. He used to drive over 
to City Road Chapel on Sundays, and was 
one of the largest givers to the London Meth- 
odist charities. He is described "as a man of 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



great humility and of ardent piety." He lived 
to the good old age of ninety-two years, when 
he died, "happy in God/' March 8, 1828. He 
was the last surviving executor of John Wes- 
ley, whom he outlived thirty-seven years. 

Wesley seems to have become acquainted 
with him through his estimable wife, who was 
the widow of one of Wesley's rich members 
and friends — Captain Cheesement, of London. 
In his journal for February 24, 1783, he 
writes : 

"I buried the remains of Captain Cheese- 
ment, one who, some years since, from a plen- 
tiful fortune, was by a train of losses utterly 
ruined, but, two or three friends enabling him 
to begin trade again, the tide turned, he pros- 
pered greatly, and riches flowed in on every 
side. A few years ago he married one equally 
agreeable in her person and temper. So what 
had he to do but enjoy himself? Accordingly, 
he left off business, took a large, handsome 
house, and furnished it in a most elegant man- 
ner. A little while after, showing his rooms 
to a friend, he said, 'All this will give small 
comfort in a dying hour.' A few days after, 
he was taken ill with a fever. I saw him twice ; 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



he was sensible, but could not speak. In spite 
of all means, he grew worse and worse, and 
in about twelve days died." 

Only one day before the funeral of the 
father, his daughter, an infant only two days 
old, died. Thus was Mrs. Cheesement, Wes- 
ley's friend, doubly bereaved. Later she be- 
came Mrs. George Wolff, of Balham Hall. 
She was to Wesley like Mary and Martha 
were to Jesus; Balham was the Bethany of 
Wesley's old age. Here he found friends, rest, 
and a home, whose doors were always wide 
open to him. Forty years before, he had such 
a home in Lewisham, at his friend Blackwell's, 
the banker. He very much needed such hos- 
pitality in his declining years. The entries in 
his Journals for Balham are few, but very sig- 
nificant. December I, 1789, after preaching 
at Mitcham, he says: "I then retired to the 
lovely family at Balham. Here I had leisure 
on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, to 
consider the account of the Pelew Islands." 
He then criticises the book, and selects from 
it extracts and comments which he prepared 
for the Arminian Magazine for 1791-92. This 
is how this busy man rested among his 
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friends. On February 16, 1790, he writes, 
"I retired to Balham for a few days, in order 
to finish my sermons, and put all my little 
things in order." He was then nearly eighty- 
seven years old, and evidently felt that the 
end was not far distant. There are no later 
entries in his Journals concerning Balham. 
October 24, 1790, this same year, is the date 
of the last entry he made. From October 14, 
1735, to October 24, 1790, fifty-five years, he 
had kept his Journals, which competent critics 
declare to be the best living pictures of the 
English history of that period, to say nothing 
of their real value to the spiritual life of the 
readers of them. These are the wonderful 
volumes which Methodist preachers have so 
largely neglected, but are now waking up to 
the value of as never before. Non-Methodist 
literary critics and leading ministers of other 
denominations have aroused us to their study. 
Read Augustine Birrell's brilliant essay on 
them, and learn their value. His Journals 
and letters reveal the real John Wesley. 

Let us trace his footsteps during the week 
which includes his last visit to Balham, and 
introduces us to the last week of his life on 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



earth. Before us lies an exact copy of the 
original account, written by "E. R." (Eliza- 
beth Ritchie), who lived in his home, went 
with him on some journeys of this week, and 
who was present at his departure. We know 
of only two original copies of this document, 
which has been so often partly quoted by his- 
torians from Whitehead down. Dr. Rigg, of 
London, owns one, and Dr. Franklin Hamil- 
ton, of Boston, owns the other. She writes: 

"On Thursday, the 17th of February, Mr. 
Wesley preached at Lambeth, from 'Labor 
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that 
meat which endureth unto everlasting life.' 
When he came home he seemed very unwell ; 
but on being asked, 'How he did?' only said 
he believed he had taken a little cold. 

"Friday, the 18th, Mr. Wesley read and 
wrote as usual, dined at Mr. Urling's, and 
preached at Chelsea in the evening, from 
'The King's business requires haste.' He was 
obliged to stop once or twice, and told the 
people his cold so affected his voice as to pre- 
vent his speaking without those necessary 
pauses. He was prevailed on to let Mr. 
Rogers and Mr. Bradford meet the classes, 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

and had a high degree of fever all the way 
home. 

"Saturday, the 19th, reading and writing 
filled up most of his precious time, though 
to those that were with him his complaints 
(fever and weakness) seemed evidently in- 
creasing. He dined at Mrs. Griffith's, Isling- 
ton, and while there desired a friend to read 
to him the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh 
chapters of Job. He was easily prevailed upon 
to let Mr. Brackenbury meet the penitents. 
But still, struggling with his weakness, some 
of us (with hearts full of foreboding fears) 
saw him ready to sink under it. 

"On Sunday he rose as usual, at four o'clock 
in the morning, but was utterly unable to 
preach. At seven o'clock he was obliged to 
lie down, and slept between three and four 
hours. When he awoke, he said, 'I have not 
had such a comfortable sleep this fortnight 
past.' The effects were soon gone, and in the 
afternoon he lay down again, and slept for 
an hour or two. Afterward, two of his own 
discourses on our Lord's Sermon on the Mount 
were read to him, and in the evening he came 
down to supper. 

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"Monday, the 20th. He seemed much bet- 
ter, and, though his friends tried to dissuade 
him from it, would keep an engagement made 

some time before to dine with Mr. G , at 

Twickenham. Miss Wesley [his niece] and 
E. R. [Ritchie, the writer of this document], 
accompanied him. In his way thither he called 
on Lady Mary Fitzgerald. The conversation 
was truly profitable, and well became a last 
visit. He prayed in such a spirit and manner 
as I believe her ladyship will never forget. 
At T. [Twickenham] he seemed much better, 
and the first and last visit to that pleasing 
family and lovely place will, I think, prove 
a lasting blessing. When he came home he 
seemed much better, and on Tuesday went 
on with his usual work, dined at Mr. Horton's, 
Islington ; preached in the evening at the City 
Road, from 'We through the Spirit wait for 
the hope of righteousness by faith;' met the 
leaders, and seemed better than he had been 
for some days." 

This was his last sermon at City Road 
Chapel. The next day he preached his last 
sermon. It was on this wise: 



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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



"On Wednesday morning, Mr. Rogers went 
with him to Leatherhead [eighteen miles dis- 
tant] to visit a family who have lately begun 
to receive the truth. They had the honor of 
this almost worn-out veteran in his blessed 
Master's service, delivering his last public 
message beneath their roof. O that all that 
heard may take the solemn warning, and so 
embrace the blessed invitation he gave them 
from 'Seek ye the Lord while he may be 
found; call upon him while he is near/ as to 
meet our departed friend at God's right hand." 

We were surprised to learn that for nearly 
one hundred years after Wesley's last sermon, 
which makes Leatherhead so historic, there 
were no Methodist services in this Surrey town 
of four thousand inhabitants. The Wesley 
Memorial Church there is an outcome of the 
centenary of Wesley's death, which was ob- 
served in 1 89 1. 

Miss Ritchie continues her pen-pictures of 
those closing days of her old friend and father 
in the Gospel : 

"On Thursday he paid his last visit to that 
lovely place and family, Mr. Wolff's, at Bal- 



185 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ham, which I have often heard him speak of 
with pleasure and much affection. Here Mr. 
Rogers says he was cheerful, and seemed 
nearly as well as usual, till Friday, about 
breakfast time, when he seemed very heavy. 
About eleven o'clock, Mrs. Wolff brought him 
home. I was struck with his manner of get- 
ting out of the coach and going into the 
house, but more so as he went upstairs, and 
when he sat down in the chair. I ran for 
some refreshment ; but before I could get any- 
thing for him he had sent Mr. R out of 

the room, and desired not to be interrupted 
for half an hour by any one ; adding, not even 
if Joseph Bradford came. Mr. Bradford came 
a few minutes after, and, as soon as the lim- 
ited time was expired, went into the room. 
Immediately after, he came out and desired 
me to mull some wine with spices and carry 
it to Mr. Wesley. He drank a little, and 
seemed sleepy. In a few minutes he was 
seized with sickness, threw it up, and said, 
'I must lie down.' We immediately sent for 
Dr. Whitehead. On his coming in, Mr. Wes- 
ley smiled, and said, 'Doctor, they are more 
afraid than hurt.' I know not how he judged 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



of our fears; for though my full heart felt as 
if the chariots of Israel and the horsemen 
thereof were near at hand to take my father 
home, yet I had said nothing; nor do I know 
that any one around him had at that time feel- 
ings similar to my own. He lay most of the 
day, with a quick pulse, burning fever, and 
extremely sleepy. In the evening, while pour- 
ing out my soul into the bosom of my Lord, 
telling him all I felt with respect to the Church 
in general, myself in particular, and trying to 
plead for my dearest father's longer stay, that 
word, 'Father, I will that they whom thou 
hast given me be with me, where I am, that 
they may behold my glory,' seemed so imme- 
diately given me from above that, with dear 
Mrs. Fletcher on a similar occasion, I may 
say, 'From that time my prayer for his life 
had lost its wings.' " 

It was on the memorable Wednesday at Bal- 
ham that he wrote his last letter, which we 
choose to call his swan-song of freedom — his 
letter to Wilberforce encouraging that other 
great reformer to persevere in his efforts 
against the African slave-trade. How much 
this letter had to do with the riddance of Eng- 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



land and America from the slaving curse, who 
can estimate? Here is a copy of the letter 
written in the Balham house at which we are 
now looking: 

"Dear Sir, — Unless the Divine power has 
raised you up to be as Athanasius, contra 
mundum, I see not how you can go through 
your glorious enterprise in opposing that ex- 
ecrable villainy, which is the scandal of re- 
ligion, of England, and of human nature. 
Unless God has raised you up for this very 
thing, you will be worn out with the opposi- 
tion of men and devils. But 'if God be for 
you, who can be against you?' Are all of 
them together stronger than God? O 'be not 
weary in welldoing!' Go on, in the name of 
God and in the power of his might, till even 
American slavery — the vilest that ever saw 
the sun — shall vanish away before it. 

"Reading this morning a tract, wrote by a 
poor African, I was particularly struck by 
that circumstance, that a man who has a 
black skin, being wronged or outraged by a 
white man, can have no redress ; it being a 
law in all our colonies, that the oath of a 
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black against a white goes for nothing. What 
villainy is this ! 

"That He who has guided you from your 
youth up may continue to strengthen you in 
this and all things is the prayer of, dear sir, 
your affectionate servant, John Wesley." 

This was the last of the very many letters 
of this truly good and great man of God, our 
founder. We choose to call it John Wesley's 
swan-song of freedom. 



189 



WESLEY'S FIRST LONDON CHAPEL 



City Road, which, since its renovation 
and centenary services in 1891, has been re- 
named Wesley's Chapel, is the shrine to 
which Methodist pilgrims from all over Wes- 
ley's world-parish wend their steps; but this 
is not Wesley's first metropolitan chapel. It 
was not opened until November 1, 1778. Be- 
fore City Road Chapel was The Foundry, 
which stood in the same fields of those days, 
a little distance from it on the southeast. No 
vestige of the old Foundry remains among 
the buildings which stand on its site, now 
known as Tabernacle Street, but formerly 
Windmill Street. Here was the head-center 
of London Methodism for nearly forty years. 
This was Wesley's first metropolitan "preach- 
ing-place," but not a chapel. The blown-up 
foundry, which caused the removal of the 
British cannon business to Woolwich, whose 
arsenal is now of world-wide reputation, this 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

old place became the spot for Methodist can- 
nonading, whose thundering was heard all 
around the world. Leased and opened in No- 
vember, 1739, fifteen hundred people would 
sometimes occupy its benches, and listen to 
the burning words of the earliest Methodist 
preachers. Here lived and died St. Susannah, 
' the mother of the Wesleys and of Methodism. 
Here were carried on those good works of 
practical Christianity, in caring for the bodies 
of the people, which are now being urged 
under the title of "Christian Socialism." John 
Wesley planned, and his people practiced, this 
so-called new gospel more than one hundred 
and sixty years ago. 

This was not called a chapel, but one of 
the preaching-places. Wesley's first London 
chapel still stands; it is unwittingly passed 
by unnoticed by great numbers of American 
visitors to London every year. When in 
Trafalgar Square, and especially when stand- 
ing at the east end of the National Gallery, 
you are within four minutes' walk of Wes- 
ley's first London chapel, the head-center of 
West London Methodism for about fifty-five 
years, and the mother of West End Meth- 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



odism, including the Hughes and Pearse "for- 
ward movement," which is attracting so much 
attention to-day. 

Walk up St. Martin's Lane, which bounds 
the National Gallery on the east, until you 
come to Aldridge's well-known livery stables; 
do not turn into the street which curves around 
with the sidewalk on which you tread, but 
look across the street and see a dingy-looking 
brick building, with an ancient bell on its roof, 
and an old three-storied house adjoining it 
on the north ; it is the Seven Dials Mission. 
It was formerly West Street Chapel, Wesley's 
first London chapel, the first legalized place 
of worship held by the Wesleys in London. 
Like the present Spitalfields Wesleyan Chapel, 
it had been a French Protestant chapel for 
about forty years, before which time there had 
stood on the same site an Episcopal Free 
Chapel, where services were conducted in 
Erse. Thus Scotch-Irish and French Chris- 
tians had consecrated this spot and made it 
ready for Wesley and his helpers. Having 
opened up work in Short's Gardens, Drury 
Lane, in 1740, where he held his first society 
meeting on January 22, 1742. Wesley felt the 
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need of a proper chapel in the West End. 
Providentially he obtained a lease of West 
Street Chapel, and on Trinity Sunday, 1743, 
held his first services therein, preaching from 
"Ye must be born again," and administering 
the sacrament to such large numbers that the 
services lasted from 10 A. M. to 3 P. M.; 
but at 5 P. M. of the same day we find John 
Wesley again preaching from the same text 
in the great gardens at Whitechapel, in East 
London. West Street Chapel, from 1743 until 
John Wesley's last service there, February 13, 
1 79 1, seventeen days before he died at City 
Road, was especially dear to our founder. 
Here Charles Wesley was a kind of perpetual 
pastor; here his family worshiped after they 
had moved from Bristol. His little white 
pony might often have been seen at the chapel 
door, with Lady Huntingdon's carriage near 
by ; these, with John Wesley's old coach, were 
familiar figures at those two old chapel doors, 
or at that of the chapel house, where lived 
Wesley's eldest sister, Mrs. Harper; here she 
was converted ; there she died in her eightieth 
year. 

Let us enter and look around. It is now, 
13 193 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



like so very many historic spots, entirely out 
of Methodist hands. It is the Seven Dials 
Mission (Church of England). We enter in 
company with that Methodist antiquarian, Pro- 
fessor S. F. Upham, of Drew Theological 
Seminary, to explore this mine of Methodist 
history. It is an oblong building, with square- 
fronted galleries on three sides. All pews and 
the old-fashioned three-decker pulpit, which 
stood there in its Methodist days, before the 
pews were put in, are now removed. It 
is a mission for the poorest of the people, and 
they have gone back from pews to benches. 
It strikes the visitor at once as being a typical 
Methodist chapel of the old-fashioned sort. 
Over the altar may be traced the places where 
once were three sashed windows opening 
from a room in the house, "Nicodemus 
Room." Here clergymen and others would 
hear Methodist preaching without being mixed 
with the congregation. We pictured them 
looking down upon the congregation, and 
slyly listening to the preaching. In Wes- 
ley's day this chapel is said to have seated 
over one thousand. They must have been 
packed closer than in these days. No space 

194 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was lost. Benches filled floor and galler- 
ies. The women sat in the front gallery 
and on the seats under it; the men on 
either side and by themselves. We could 
easily, in imagination, both seat and see them 
worshiping. We pictured that Sunday in 
1759, when John Wesley had eight services, 
and had prayed for help. In the midst of one 
of them there entered the chapel in haste a 
helper, who had just been ordained in the 
royal chapel, Whitehall, only a few minutes' 
walk from here. He assisted him in one of 
those memorable sacramental services of the 
old chapel, using the very cups now used in 
its successor, Great Queen Street Chapel. 
That young helper was John Fletcher, who 
soon after preached, in broken English, his 
first sermon from that pulpit, and who be- 
came ''Wesley's designated successor," and 
the author of the immortal "Checks," etc. 

On Tuesday morning, March 26, 1754, John 
Wesley entered this chapel to preach, after 
four months of silence through sickness, but 
full of his "Notes on the New Testament," 
upon which he had been busy during those 
months. The people were overjoyed to see 

195 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



him. A young Scotchman, a baker, was pres- 
ent that morning, and found pardon under that 
sermon. He was Alexander Mather, who be- 
came president of the Conference, and died in 
1800, superintendent of the London Circuit, 
and whom, high authority claims, John Wes- 
ley ordained as superintendent or bishop for the 
English work, just as he had ordained Bishop 
Coke for the American. Why did not these 
English Methodists seize their opportunity 
for an episcopal Methodism in England? 

A memorable service was held here in 1777. 
A new convert to Christ and also to Meth- 
odism was announced to preach. The chapel 
was crowded to hear Mr. Wesley's new and 
distinguished helper. At the appointed mo- 
ment he appeared, with his boyish face and 
figure. Short in stature, with regular features, 
bright smile, sparkling dark eyes, alabaster 
brow, and raven black hair, and Welsh accent ; 
he is Rev. Thomas Coke, D. C. L., late curate 
of South Petherton, and later the first Meth- 
odist bishop, and the organizer of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in America. For many 
years after that morning was his voice heard 
in West Street Chapel. In 1843, while Rev. 
196 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



M. Dibdin, the Episcopal minister, was wait- 
ing to see inquirers, a convert of Dr. Coke's 
came to him, and, pointing to a seat near the 
door, said, "I was converted while sitting there 
fifty years ago." He then lived in St. Mar- 
tin's Lane. He was converted at ten years 
of age, when Dr. Coke had made five of his 
voyages, and returned in 1793. Here George 
Whitefield, before and after his tabernacle was 
built in 1756-7, often preached. In 1788, Brad- 
burn here preached Charles Wesley's funeral 
sermon, and the congregation subscribed £10 
13s. 6d., to which Mr. Marriott added £3 3s., 
to pay the funeral expenses. As late as 1856 
the Episcopal pastor used to preach in open 
air on Sundays, and use Wesley's portable pul- 
pit, which was then kept in the chapel house, 
and was "like a large kitchen meat screen." 
An American can easily have access to this old 
chapel, its vestries, and chapel-house, and will 
be better able to read Methodist history after 
a visit there. 
We will now turn aside to see: 



197 



A GREAT SIGHT OF LONDON 



Tourists, whether professedly Christians or 
not, visit Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's 
Cathedral. The great Nonconformist Cathe- 
dral in the East End ought not to be omitted 
from the itinerary of any one interested in 
Christian work. Where is it? What is it? 
It is the Great Assembly Hall in the Mile 
End Road, which is a continuation of White- 
chapel. Perhaps its business-like frontage is a 
reason why many passers-by on foot and 'bus 
overlook it or think it a small affair. It is 
really the largest mission hall in the world, 
and one of the greatest gospel agencies in Lon- 
don. Standing on the Mile End waste in front 
of it, what do we see ? A large, plain frontage, 
ninety feet wide and forty feet deep, behind 
which, and hidden by it, are the great and the 
smaller halls. On one side of the main en- 
trance is a brilliant saloon ; but one of the right 
sort, though to us wrongly named. It is the 
198 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Book Saloon, out of which flows into that 
community a pure stream of gospel literature. 
On the other side is a "Coffee Palace," where 
temperance drinks and foods can be had at 
reasonable prices. It is made as attractive as 
the drinking saloons hard by. Good books 
and tracts, good food, coffee, and cocoa com- 
pete with the penny and pernicious printed 
matter sold on the sidewalks, and the liquid 
fire sold over the bars which abound in that 
neighborhood. Both of these places of busi- 
ness, with all three of the front entrances, lead 
into the octagonal vestibule, which holds six 
hundred people, and leads into the great hall. 
Above the spacious floor, and around it, are 
three great galleries and an organ and choir 
gallery. Two large platforms, rising one 
above the other, are for the speakers. Four 
thousand six hundred sittings are there. Some- 
times seven thousand gather in hall and ves- 
tibule. On Sunday nights the hall is filled. 
On week nights the ground floor is well filled 
with worshipers. Herein, and in the "tin 
tabernacle" and other places which preceded 
it, services have been held for about ten thou- 
sand consecutive nights. The tenements all 
199 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



over the frontage are all used for evangelistic 
and social agencies. In one of them is the 
office of General Secretary Edwin H. Kerwin, 
Esq., J. P. In his presence we stand before 
the pioneer of this great Christian enterprise. 
He is a genial man of about fifty-five years of 
age, a thoroughly common-sense business man, 
who always has his wits about him, and the 
Lord about his wits. He needs both in his 
arduous toils. About thirty-five years ago this 
young man and a kindred spirit began work 
among boys in a hayloft over a stable. It was 
a humble beginning. What could they two 
do among so many who needed the gospel? 
God saw that they needed a great helper. He 
sent them one. He is now the leader of the 
movement — the Hon. Superintendent Fred- 
erick N. Charrington, Esq., L. C. C. 

For more than thirty-five years this noble 
man of God has poured his time, his life, his 
fortune, and all his large social influence into 
this work. Though no ordaining hands have 
ever been laid upon his head, he is a New Tes- 
tament bishop, and the archbishop of the 
Tower Hamlets Mission, of which this hall 
is the center. The story of his conversion, en- 
200 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



trance upon this work, and his renunciation 
of a colossal fortune, is that of a real knight 
of the nineteenth century. The son of a mil- 
lionaire brewer, whose name is still seen all 
over the city, he had chosen his father's pro- 
fession and entered the great brewery, which 
is still carried on by Charrington, only a 
few doors from the great hall, and which can 
be seen all over East London. With his 
parents he had made a Continental tour, dur- 
ing which he met Mr. William Rainsford, now 
the well-known divine of New York City. Mr. 
Rainsford had a Christian experience. Mr. 
Charrington had not, but rested his salvation 
on his baptism, which he had been taught made 
him a child of God. After their return, and 
just before parting, Mr. Rainsford put this 
pointed question to him, "Do you know you are 
saved?" accompanied with his own testimony 
to the conscious saving power of Christ. His 
friend at first resented it, but promised to read, 
when alone, the third chapter of St. John. He 
did so, and became a saved young man. He 
offered himself to his rector for work. After 
brewing by day, he taught a boys' night school. 
He visited Mr. Kerwin's hayloft and its work. 



201 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Immediately he felt called to join them in that 
work. He soon began to search into the causes 
of the poverty he saw, and concluded that beer 
and liquors were the chief cause, and he was 
a brewer and the son of a brewer. What 
should he do? He at once heard and obeyed 
his call to renounce and to denounce the whole 
nefarious business, at whatever cost. It cost 
him much in every way. To hate (that is, to 
love less) father and mother, sister and 
brother, for Christ's sake is expensive work. 
He paid the price. To step out penniless 
and leave millions behind (I know it meant 
a sacrifice of $6,250,000) needed faith and 
courage. God gave him both. His father, 
when dying, relented, and told his noble son, 
"You were right, and I was wrong." He 
willed him a share in the brewery; or, if he 
declined that, a comfortable support for life. 
He at once refused the share, and has ever 
since been pouring his life and his comfortable 
support, day and night, into the work of the 
gospel and temperance. 

His voice, nightly calling men to sign the 
pledge in the hall, can almost be heard in 
the great Charrington Brewery, a few doors 
202 



Pilgrimages to "Methodist Shrines 



down the street. The reform work which he 
has from time to time led in the East End, at 
the risk of his life, the story of his museum of 
battered hats, floured, filth-pelted, and torn 
clothing, trophies of his fights against the low 
music hall which nearly adjoined his mission 
hall, the newspaper caricatures and notices, and 
his experiences in closing, in one case, a whole 
street full of brothels, would make interesting 
reading, did space allow. Only a little over 
fifty years of age, his health is greatly im- 
paired by the great strain upon nerve, heart, 
and mind for nearly thirty years. He can not 
fight sin as he once could, but he can and does 
pray as mightily as ever, and pay as largely; 
for, like John Wesley, all above his personal 
needs as an unmarried gentleman — in which 
he is wiser than was Wesley — all is poured into 
the work of which the Great Assembly Hall 
is the center, and of which he, under Christ, 
is the head. A Church organization became 
a necessity. It is practically a Free Baptist 
Church, though not so called, and has a mem- 
bership of more than fifteen hundred. Mr. 
Charrington does not preach ; he leads the serv- 
ices. Leading English and American evangel- 
203 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ists supply the pulpit for a month or two at a 
time each year. All the preaching, excepting 
Wednesday nights, is intended to be especially 
evangelistic. Wednesday addresses are to be- 
lievers. Perhaps the variety of talent is one of 
the chief reasons why the immense congre- 
gations never decrease. The money gifts of 
Mr. Charrington are supplemented by con- 
tributions from all over England, and, in fact, 
from all over the world, where the results of 
the work are found. A visit to the Great As- 
sembly Hall and its various gospel agencies 
would well repay every Christian and philan- 
thropic American who goes to see the great 
sights of London. 



204 



CARRYING LIVE "COALS TO NEW- 
CASTLE" 

"Carrying coals to Newcastle" is a prover- 
bially needless task, but all depends upon the 
kind of coals. About two years after John 
Wesley, whose lips had been touched with a 
live coal from off God's own altar, after kin- 
dling a holy fire among the wicked colliers of 
Kingswood, England, he being in Yorkshire, 
determined to visit Newcastle-on-Tyne. He 
arrived Friday, May 28, 1742. John Taylor 
was with him. He found it a very degraded 
mining region. On entering the town he went 
to Mr. Gun's public-house, and, after tea, went 
out to look around this new part of his "world 
parish." Hearing curses and swearing even 
from the lips of little children, and seeing great 
drunkenness on every side, he concluded that 
"surely this place is ripe for Him who came, 
not to call the righteous, but sinners, to re- 
pentance." On Sunday morning at seven 
205 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



o'clock he and John Taylor went outside the 
walls of the old town to the sand-gate. Tak- 
ing his stand at a pump, he called upon the 
"North to give up" to Christ and Methodism, 
just as the South of England had done. 

Being in England, we visited those Northern 
scenes. Leaving Yorkshire, as did they, we, 
too, went to Newcastle. Arriving, we inquired 
for the Sand-gate. W e found it a dirty part of 
the town, about ten minutes' walk from the 
station. The old pump was still there, but 
now a handsome drinking fountain stands in 
its place, erected by the Newcastle and Gates- 
head Council in memory of Wesley's visit to 
the town and first service there. Services were 
held on May 30th, the one hundred and forty- 
ninth anniversary of Wesley's first visit. It 
is also proposed to hold open-air preaching 
services near the spot every Sunday morning. 
All local branches of Methodism assisted to 
commemorate this important beginning of 
Methodism in the North. 

We stood by the old pump, and looked 
around at the old houses. Close by the water 
fount is a rum shop, with the sign of the 
"Three Bulls' Heads." This, we concluded, 
206 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



was one of the causes of the squalor and pov- 
erty seen on every side. We talked with an 
old grocer who had kept store a few feet 
from the spot for forty-one years. He told 
us that the water was excellent, which we at 
once proved, and that in times of drought it 
had been sold to the people. He knew nothing 
of Wesley's visit there, so we told him of the 
little clergyman in gown and bands, who, with 
John Taylor at his side, stood there on May 
30, 1742, and began to sing the one hundredth 
Psalm; how that three or four people at that 
early hour came out of those old houses to 
see "what was the matter," and how they still 
came, until from twelve hundred to fifteen 
hundred people thronged the street, facing 
the pump and the hill towards which its 
handle pointed. Wesley's text was, "He 
was wounded for our transgressions," etc. 
Service concluded, he told the gaping crowd: 
"My name is John Wesley. At five in the 
evening, with God's help, I design to preach 
here again." He did so, to the largest con- 
gregation he had up to that time seen. He 
says: "After preaching, the poor people were 
ready to tread me under foot, out of pure love 
207 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



and kindness." They begged him to stay ; but, 
rising before the sun on Monday morning, he 
traveled eighty miles that day on his way to 
another appointment, and for his first visit 
to Epworth since his father's death, and to his 
first tombstone service there. 

This first visit to Newcastle was cometary — 
a short blaze and a disappearance. 

About two months later, Charles Wesley 
went there, and found a society on Lisle Street. 
This was the first in the great North. We 
went in search of the old place, and found it 
to be now a dwelling-house in a very narrow 
street almost opposite the site of the Orphan 
House of Wesley, which was really the third 
chapel built by him, Kingswood Chapel having 
preceded it. 

In Newcastle it was that Mr. Wesley deter- 
mined "not to strike where he could not follow 
up the blow." Here sprang up the "circuit 
system" which did so much for Methodism. 
Here John W T esley pronounced as "demo- 
niacal" those manifestations in meetings which 
some people called the "power of the Holy 
Ghost." He was quick to discriminate be- 
208 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

tween the work of the devil in meeting, and 
the work of the Lord. 

A house of worship was needed. Its foun- 
dation-stone was laid, though he had only 
$7.25 of the needed $3^500. It was opened in 
March, 1742. 

The lower part was a chapel fitted with 
forms and pulpit. The classrooms were above. 
Still above were the rooms for preachers and 
their families. An attic chamber on the roof 
was Mr. Wesley's own study; this was a 
wooden addition. Herein he projected his 
"popular library of threescore, or even four- 
score, volumes." 

It was called the Orphan House, because 
designed also to be a school and home for 
orphans, but the project failed. Here, from 
x 743 to 1856, stood Wesley's third chapel and 
headquarters in what he called "the Kings- 
wood of the North." Bristol, Kingswood, 
London, and Newcastle were aflame with 
Methodist fire. All but the London one were 
altars built for the very purpose. The London 
house was the old cannon foundry, converted 
to the use of the Prince of Peace. 
H 209 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Two extracts from his Journals tell us how 
John Wesley regarded this place. Under date 
of June 23, 1779, when in his seventy-sixth 
year, he writes : "I rested here. Lovely place 
and lovely company. But I believe there is 
another world. Therefore I must arise and 
go hence." June 4, 1790, only eight months 
before he went to the home above, he writes: 
"We reached Newcastle. In this and Kings- 
wood house, were I to do my own will, I should 
choose to spend the short remainder of my 
days. But it can not be ; this is not my rest." 

It was in this same old home Grace Murray 
kept house for John Wesley and his preachers, 
and thereon "hangs a tale" — a true love tale — 
which will not be "continued in our next." 

Being in the region, we turned aside from 
our Methodist exploration for awhile, in order 
to walk in the footsteps of 



210 



A PRE-METHODIST FATHER, THE 
VENERABLE BEDE 



Thousands of Americans yearly visit the 
ancient city of Durham, England, to admire 
its grand old cathedral and the castle which 
adjoins it, but few journey to Sunderland, 
which is only thirteen miles northeast of that 
picturesque old city, and to Jarrow, which is 
only a few miles away from this second largest 
coal-shipping port in the world, Newcastle-on- 
Tyne being the largest. 

Sunderland includes Bishopwearmouth and 
Monkwearmouth, where still stands the old 
church of St. Peter, the tower of which, and 
pieces of wall, are the same which once formed 
part of the monastery of Wearmouth, whither, 
in the year 673 A. D., from the territory of the 
monastery, probably the village of Monkton, 
where he was born, came, or rather, like 
Samuel, was brought by his parents, at the 
early age of seven years, the child, who is now 
211 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



known as the Venerable Bede — the Monk of 
Jarrow. 

On standing under the old tower and ex- 
amining the ancient stones one certainly felt 
in touch with y e ancient time." 

After about three years' stay at this place, 
the boy went, with a portion of the brother- 
hood, to the new establishment at Jarrow, a 
part of the forty "hides" of land which King 
Egfrid had given Benedict Biscop in apprecia- 
tion of his religious zeal. Under the lead of 
Ceolfrid, its first abbot, Jarrow was opened, 
and Bede was among its first occupants. 

A touching fact of his boyhood days at this 
place is recorded. In 686 a pestilence raged in 
the community. All were seized with the 
plague, so that only Coelfrid, the abbott, and 
one little boy were able to chant the daily 
offices. They sang duets among the sobbing 
worshipers, omitting the antiphonies of the 
service until others were sufficiently taught to 
help them in the daily chants. The one little 
boy was, doubtless, Bede. 

At this place we find the head-spring of 
English literature, or, a least, of English prose 
and of the English Scriptures. Nearly all of 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the very few writings of the island before 
Bede's day were ancient British. They hailed 
from the present Wales and Cornwall, where 
the Britons had been driven. For about a 
quarter of a century before Bede's day North- 
umbria had been moving in the direction of 
letters, and was soon to become the center of 
learning to Western Europe, with Bede as its 
representative. Of the eight prominent writ- 
ers who flourished from A. D. 650 to the tenth 
century he excelled them all. While Southern 
Britain was rent with strife and battle, the 
North was preparing the way for the 
apothegm, "The pen is mightier than the 
sword." 

Here Bede became, while still young, a 
teacher. He gathered around him six hun- 
dred monk scholars, besides many other pupils. 
In this place he collected the current facts of 
science and art. His curriculum included 
"science, music, rhetoric, medicine, arithmetic, 
astronomy, and physics." These studies he 
lovingly pursued, and, putting them into books, 
they were scattered over all literary Europe. 
Forty-five volumes attest his industry. 

His "Ecclesiastical History of the English 
213 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Nation" was the first really English history; 
it is still an invaluable work. Its period is 
from A. D. 597 to 731. He wrote all his works 
in Latin, with the notable exception of his very 
last work — the translation of St. John's Gos- 
pel — which is in old English. This was the 
first specimen of English prose. Thus God's 
Word — the Fourth Gospel, which is called "the 
heart of Christ" — became the first piece of true 
English prose, and was the last work of that 
godly monk and greatest scholar of his times, 
now known as the Venerable Bede. Burke 
called him "the father of English learning." 

The story of his life's close is thrillingly in- 
teresting. In extreme old age he set about the 
work of giving the Scriptures to "his boys" 
in the tongue of the people. He worked with 
great energy on St. John's Gospel to the words, 
"But what are they among so many?" (John 
vi, 9) when asthma drove him to his bed, and 
he could write no more. Afterward he wrote, 
by the hand of his pupils, until the last chap- 
ter was reached. Then his scribe said : "There 
is still a chapter wanting, and it is hard for 
thee to question thyself longer." Bede replied : 
"It is easily done ; take thy pen and write 
214 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



quickly." The day was fast closing upon the 
dying translator and his youthful scribe, when 
the boy said, "There is yet one sentence un- 
written, dear master." "Write it quickly," ut- 
tered the godly monk. "It is finished now," 
said the amanuensis. The dying scholar and 
saint replied: "Good! Thou hast spoken the 
truth. It is finished. Take my head unto your 
hands, for it pleases me much to sit over 
against the holy place where I was wont to 
pray, that, so sitting, I may call upon my 
Father." 

Thus sitting upon the pavement of his little 
cell, singing, "Glory be to the Father, and to 
the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," when he had 
named the Holy Ghost, with head pillowed on 
the hands of his loving pupil and eyes glazed 
in death, he sweetly glided into the "new song 
before the throne," blending his sweet voice 
with "the hundred and forty and four thousand 
which were redeemed from the earth." 

His body was interred in the monastery of 
Jarrow, where it remained until the eleventh 
century, when, Durham Cathedral being com- 
pleted, his bones were removed and placed in 
the Ladye Chapel of that marvelous struc- 

215 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ture. On the black marble slab which covers 
his tomb is the inscription : "Hac sunt in fossa 
venerabilis Bedce ossa." While looking upon 
his tomb, the old verger told us a legend of 
this inscription, which says : "The monk who 
cut the letters was sorely troubled for a fitting 
word. A whole day passed, and it came not. 
He lay down beside his task, and fell into a 
troubled sleep. When he awoke an angel had 
descended and cut the word with the mark 
over it just as it stands to this day." 

Thus lived, labored, died, and was buried the 
man who has been justly called "the first 
among English scholars, first among English 
theologians, first among English historians." 
May we not truthfully add, "one of the first 
among all God's saints who have lived upon 
the earth — the Venerable Bede, the monk of 
Jarrow?" 

Monkton, Wearmouth, and Jarrow, a circuit 
of less than twelve miles, seem to have been 
the limits of his travels ; but the name of Bede 
and his faithful work for God and his fellow- 
men is coextensive with the Christian Church 
and world. 



216 



OLD YORK AND EARLY METH- 
ODISM 



Thousands of American Methodist tourists 
who embark at New York and elsewhere for 
a trip to Europe and the European Continent 
anticipate great pleasure from a visit to the 
ancient city of York, England. None are dis- 
appointed. Its ancient wall, with old bars or 
gates still standing; its magnificent minster; 
its ancient towers, the Multangular and Clif- 
ford; its museum of ancient British, Roman, 
and Anglo-Saxon antiquities, all controlled by 
the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, combine 
to make a visit interesting and profitable. 
On our last visit to the old city we went in 
search of Methodist antiquities, and were sur- 
prised to find so many points of interest, and 
especially to learn of the great influence of 
Methodism in York to-day, where we supposed 
our Church was so overshadowed by the 
Anglican Church to be little and almost un- 
217 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



known. Meeting at the fine railway station 
an old friend, a York Methodist preacher, he 
took us to his parsonage. It was the old New 
Street parsonage, adjoining the spacious 
chapel which was built to hold from fifteen 
hundred to two thousand people, and which 
now seats one thousand. Herein, since 1805, 
the voices of the greatest of English Meth- 
odist preachers have been heard. In the par- 
sonage have lived many who bore honored 
names. Herein were found many copies of 
the celebrated "fly sheets" which, like light- 
ning flashes, split English Methodism asunder 
in the years 1850-51. ''Clerical politics" was 
a live topic in those days, but the animus of 
the movement brought death to many of the 
Churches. "The split" took from the Mother 
Church more than eighty-six thousand mem- 
bers. York Circuit alone lost 1.038 members 
in three years. Great was the influence of one 
of the reputed authors of the "sheets," who 
was then a supernumerary in the city. These 
were the darkest days of English Methodism; 
but the morning came, and with it came the 
manifestation of the righteousness of the al- 
leged "clerical politicians," and their judgment 

218 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

shone forth as the noonday. At the foot of 
New Street, in L,endal, stands the old Noncon- 
formist chapel where James Parsons preached 
so ably many years. 

We were interested in visiting the Centenary 
Methodist Chapel, which seats two thousand, 
and which is said to be the most popular and 
influential place of worship in the old city, the 
minster not excepted. Yet those Methodists 
still call it a chapel. Six of these chapels be- 
long to the Wesleyans, and provide for about 
one-twelfth of the population. Anglicanism 
has the minster, eight mission-rooms, and 
thirty-six churches, which provide for about 
one-fifth of the population. The Wesleyans 
give more for home missions than does the 
Church of England in York, and nearly as 
much for foreign missions. Therefore, Meth- 
odist tourists in York need not "cower under 
an ancient shadow." York Methodists raise 
$11,000 a year for missions. Its six large city 
chapels are well attended, and two of them are 
often crowded. On a recent watch-night fully 
one thousand were present at Centenary Chapel. 
That night the lord mayor, three of the alder- 
men, and eleven of the city councilors were 
219 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



members of the Wesleyan Church. The first 
Methodist in York was marched into the city 
between two soldiers, a prisoner from Birstal, 
where he had been pressed for a soldier by a 
plot laid by his neighbors, who were strong 
anti-Methodists, and hurried on to Halifax and 
Bradford, where he was cast into a filthy 
prison ; thence on to Leeds. On a Monday 
morning, April, 1744, John Nelson was 
brought to York, and led into the presence 
of swearing officers at the Black Swan, on 
Coney Street. Marched thence to the guard- 
house, he there refused the king's bounty, after 
which he was haled to prison. Here, like Paul, 
he preached to those who visited him. After 
three days he was tried by court-martial, and 
allowed to go to his quarters, where his host 
kindly treated him. His few Sabbaths and 
other spare hours were spent in sowing the 
seed in that city whose fruit now appears in 
York Methodism. John Wesley heard of his 
trials, and wrote him words of cheer. He later 
became Wesley's companion and defender. 
John Wesley's first recorded visit was Febru- 
ary 27, 1747, but his Journals imply an earlier 
one. He designed to reach York again in 
220 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



April, 1747, but a brutal assault on Nelson, 
who had been laboring there, deterred him 
from going just then. 

We went down to the old Bedern, where, 
in the house of Thomas Stodhart, the little 
society was formed. A second was formed at 
the Hole in the Wall, in the Pump yard, near 
the minster, now a very uninviting place, used 
for a slaughter-house. 

The most interesting spot to us was Pease- 
holme-green Chapel that was, which is now 
converted into tenements on the ground floor, 
and a hayloft above. This was the first Meth- 
odist chapel built in York. It is more inter- 
esting to us than York Minster, because of 
its being closely connected with American 
Methodism and Methodist missions. On Sun- 
day, August 13, 1769, two Methodist preach- 
ers met in York by appointment made at the 
Leeds Conference a few days before. They 
were Wesley's first missionaries, Boardman 
and Pilmoor, who had responded to the call 
of Captain Webb from New York to "come 
over and help us." They were well known in 
the city and neighborhood, and were warmly 
welcomed, especially as being en route for 
221 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



America by way of London, and not Bristol, 
as Stevens and T. P. Bunting say. Pilmoor's 
Journals show that they left York by coach 
for London at ten o'clock that Sunday night, 
arriving on Tuesday evening at eight o'clock, 
and sailing from Gravesend on Monday, 
August 2 1 st. The story of the conversion of 
Dr. Bunting's mother by the preaching of 
Boardman "on his way to London, not Bris- 
tol, to embark for America," is a very interest- 
ing one, which we can not now stop to tell. 

In this old Peaseholme-green chapel, at five 
o'clock on that Sunday evening, Pilmoor 
preached to "a large and attentive audience" 
from Psalm lxxxix, 15, and there and then was 
taken the first public Methodist missionary col- 
lection. It amounted to ten shillings ($2.50). 
The York Methodists were so overjoyed that 
they appointed a meeting for five o'clock next 
morning to give God thanks for the spirit of 
liberality which had been poured out upon 
them. While they were holding that early 
service the missionaries were on their way to 
America to pioneer for the coming Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which this year is giving "a 
million and a half for missions by collections 
222 



I 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

only." The $2.50 given by York Methodists 
that night was well invested. The reflex good 
upon the struggling and poor society in the 
old city is seen in the fact that it is now the 
banner city of English Methodism in the mat- 
ter of missionary giving. When you visit the 
minster, be sure and visit the old Peaseholme- 
green chapel, which lies southwest of it. 
Not a shrine, but a specimen of 



223 



RED-HOT METHODISM 



This was the kind we found in Manchester, 
England — the Manchester and Salford Wes- 
leyan Methodist Mission. 

After about thirteen years of hearing and 
reading concerning this great work, we longed 
also to see it. We had learned from highest 
authority that herefrom Hugh Price Hughes 
took his fire. We had seen it blazing in the 
West London Mission, on former visits; 
now we were able to stand before the orig- 
inal and ever-increasing flame, and shall our- 
selves be more fervent in consequence. 

About thirty years before we happened to 
be in Manchester, England's second largest 
city, on a Sunday and on Christmas-day. 
Being in the early morning of both natural 
and spiritual life, we were anxious to get the 
most possible out of the days in a strange city. 
On Christmas-day we attended the historic 
love-feast at Oldham Street. The immense 



224 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



chapel, which seated two thousand people, was 
filled to overflowing. We learned that people 
came from many miles beyond the city to at- 
tend this great feast. In the afternoon of 
Sunday we went to Free Trade Hall to hear 
a leading Baptist divine who was attracting 
the masses. These two spots are now the great 
centers of this, the greatest Methodist mission. 

On a Sunday afternoon in August we went 
again to Oldham Street. The old chapel was 
not. The great Central Hall, a magnificent 
block of buildings, has been built upon the old 
site. It was reopening day, for it had been 
closed for repairs. What a sight we beheld! 
Not less than two thousand people, by actual 
count, were there. Being in unclerical attire, 
we could move about freely among the people 
without attracting attention of preachers or 
people. Taking a seat in the body of the hall, 
before us was the platform, with the preacher, 
Rev. W. H. Heap, a lively Scotsman not yet 
thirty-five years of age, a lady soloist, and a 
large orchestra of brass and stringed instru- 
ments, backed by a larger chorus choir, made 
up mostly of young people. In one angle of 
the hall behind us were about five hundred 



25 



225 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



men, evidently of the poorer sort, the most of 
them greatly needing clean bodies as well as 
clean hearts. They had just had their free 
lunch, a "bun" and coffee, downstairs; for 
these wise workers have learned that a poor 
man is in better condition to receive the gos- 
pel after he has had his bodily hunger ap- 
peased. In the other angle were about three 
hundred women of the same class, who also 
had been prepared for the service. All around 
us and them were all sorts and conditions of 
people. Promptly at three o'clock the services 
began. All the exercises were short, spirited, 
and spiritual. The reverential attention of that 
mixed multitude would put to shame many 
an American congregation who would not like 
to be classed with them. The sermon was care- 
fully prepared, exactly suited to the hearers 
and the occasion, and must have been a means 
of grace to very many, and certainly was an 
inspiration to Christian workers. The preacher 
will surely be more widely known in the near 
future. At the close, an after-meeting was 
announced in the chapel below. Of course, 
we went. About one hundred gathered here, 
and very soon several went forward to the 
226 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



altar-rail as seekers. At least a dozen started 
during this meeting. The sisters and other 
workers at once knelt with them, and pointed 
them to the cross on which He bowed his 
head, and which would lift them to the skies. 
This service over, the preacher and workers 
stood at the door to shake hands with each 
as they passed out. Several hands were dirty ; 
but it mattered not, only that such were shaken 
more heartily. 

This over, the workers hastened to their 
friendly meal, in which the "good cup of tea" 
has a prominent place. (Those English know 
how to make one as well as to drink it.) Tea 
over, visitation begins. The workers proceed 
to lodging-houses to hold meetings, and then 
bring lodgers to evening service. The bands- 
men go to lead the street parades and adver- 
tise the services. Some go to hold brief open- 
air meetings, and then invite the crowd to the 
halls. Is it any wonder that Central and Free 
Trade Halls are crowded at every service? 

But what about the old chapel which stood 
here for about a century? It is the now fa- 
miliar city story : Families moved to the 
suburbs ; the congregations dwindled ; it was a 
227 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



hard struggle to carry on the Church on the 
old family lines of worship and work. Result, 
failure. In 1885, when Mr. Collier went to 
Manchester, the membership had run down 
to forty-five in full and three on probation. 
The congregation corresponded. The Confer- 
ence sent there a man who yet had his spurs 
to win, but he was a true knight of the cross — 
Rev. S. F. Collier. Like Nehemiah, he viewed 
the ruins. Gathering around him a few kin- 
dred spirits, he also said, "We, His servants, 
will arise and build." Perhaps never was a 
minister's "godly judgment" more aided in 
beginning this work than was his. New lines 
of work were projected. Business men were 
interested. Volunteer workers were gathered 
and inspired. Things began to move. People 
began to flock. Discouraged saints became en- 
couraged with signs of returning prosperity. 
With such counselors as Rev. Dr. H. J. Pope, 
and that king of men, now gone to his corona- 
tion, Rev. James E. Clapham, Mr. Collier felt 
strong. Soon the Conference could send him 
helpful colleagues. New features were added 
to the services. New lines of Christian work 
were projected until the old chapel had to be 
228 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



demolished and this new hall built. It is now 
the center of four other preaching-places. In 
these five places fourteen thousand people hear 
the gospel every Sunday, and twenty-five hun- 
dred gather in the five Sunday-schools. (These 
figures are not prophetic, but arithmetical.) 
The membership at Oldham Street had in- 
creased from 45 with 3 probationers, seventeen 
years before, to 948 with 430 probationers. The 
membership of the whole mission circuit was 
2,187, with 74° on probation. The increase 
for the previous year was 217 in full and 285 
probationers. The numbers are increasing 
yearly. The increase in class moneys in one 
year was $550. What would the stewards and 
finance committees of our Churches not do if 
all our members paid class money? "Agony 
Sundays" would be no more. The Philistines 
would no longer laugh at the Israel of God 
in their feeble attempts to raise money to sup- 
port the ark of God. 

We must see and hear this pioneer of "for- 
ward movements," Mr. Collier. A large brass 
band, followed by a crowd, with workers scat- 
tering "fliers," announce evening service at 
Free Trade Hall, the Boston Music Hall of 
229 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Manchester. Here Mr. Collier has preached 
Sunday evenings since 1889. We went, we 
saw, and we again were conquered. People 
were thronging there as if to a free feast. The 
sidewalks were lined with people. The hall 
was completely filled. A steward said to me: 
"They call us stewards ; we are really packers, 
for we have to pack the people into these seats 
at every service." The congregation was more 
generally mixed than that of the afternoon. 
The music and choir were about the same. A 
prominent business man, who also is probably 
a local preacher, presided, gave out hymns, led 
in prayer, and read notices, while Mr. Collier, 
at his side, rested for the third sermon that 
day. Central Hall in the morning, that same 
platform afternoon and evening — how can he 
stand the strain year after year? Not over 
brawny, but a brainy, brave, and busy man 
and minister is Rev. S. F. Collier. The ser- 
mon, on the conversion of the Ethiopian, was 
simple, direct, and pertinent to the occasion, 
but by no means "great" in the usual sense of 
that term. Men who bring such things to pass 
do not preach "great" sermons. 

An after-meeting in a side room and an 
230 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



open-air preaching service followed this mass- 
meeting. After walking ten minutes we 
reached the open-air meeting, and there, on a 
large wagon, were seated Revs. Messrs. Collier 
and Heap, just fresh from the great halls. A 
crowd of people were being addressed by one 
of the lay workers. At the close of this meet- 
ing an after-meeting in the chapel at Central 
Hall was to be held. At what time this last 
meeting of the day ended we know not. Mr. 
Collier left the open-air meeting as soon as it 
was well under way. I followed him, intro- 
duced myself, and walked with him to his office, 
where we had an instructive talk on the work 
of the mission. He still had before him con- 
siderable clerical work, though it was then 
nearly ten o'clock on Sunday night, and he had 
been in services nearly every hour of that day. 
Certainly the Holy Spirit must quicken his 
mortal body, as well as his heart and mind, for 
this great work. Besides these great meetings, 
and those at Wesley Institute, great Bridge- 
water Street, Wesley Hall, the Victoria Hall, 
great Ancoats Chapel, and the Winter Theater 
services, is the great social work carried on at 
the Men's Home and Labor-yard, which turned 
231 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



out $2,500 worth of kindling wood last year; 
the Preventive and Training Home for Girls; 
the Night Shelter for Women and Coffee 
Tavern; the Casual Ward for Men, which 
last year made up sixty-five hundred beds 
and served thirteen thousand meals ; the 
Medical Mission and District Nursing among 
the Poor; the Servants' Registry, Employ- 
ment Bureau, The Goose Club, Food Depot, 
Cottage Missions, Girls' Institute, Lads' Clubs ; 
the Free Breakfasts for Poor Children, 
and the Maternity Home work — all of which 
agencies of this Methodist mission are daily 
and nightly doing their Christlike work in that 
great city. "Gipsy Smith"' is a member of 
Central Hall, meets regularly, when at home, 
in class, and is esteemed more highly for his 
works' sake at this, his home, than even in 
Boston and vicinity, where are so many souls 
who were converted, by God's blessing, on his 
ministry in that city. Mr. Smith is always 
sure of a hearty welcome when able to preach 
in either of the great halls of this Methodist 
mission to which he belongs. Mr. Collier 
counts the "button-hole ministry," or personal 
work, as the chief cause of the success of this 
232 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



mission. The large number of volunteer work- 
ers he has gathered around him is surprising. 
The paid workers in this great mission are very 
few. Their great reward is in heaven; but a 
happier set of Christian workers we have never 
yet seen than those of the Manchester and Sal- 
ford Wesleyan Methodist Mission. 

At the Conference held in Manchester in 
1902, in the Central Hall, one of the first things 
done was to honor Mr. Collier by electing him 
to the "Legal Hundred." The following 
sketch of this honored servant of God appeared 
in the Methodist Recorder, of London, in July, 
1902 : 

"Mr. Collier was born at Runcorn, in the 
year 1855. He comes of good Methodist stock, 
his father being a well-known and popular local 
preacher. As Thomas Champness would say, 
'There was always a game-cock in the egg/ 
and quite as a lad he began to display the 
traits and abilities that have renderd him 
famous. He was educated at the school of 
Mr. Henry Mathwin, Southport, and at one 
time his intellectual success indicated a scholas- 
tic career; but, commencing to preach in the 
Southport (Trinity) Circuit, it was soon evi- 

233 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

dent that the Lord had other work for him to 
do, and accordingly, in 1877, he proceeded, as 
an accepted candidate, to Didsbury. He was a 
great favorite at college, thanks to his genial- 
ity, his manliness, his proficiency as a student, 
and his prowess in the cricket field. Even yet 
he can show his lads how to 'make a few.' 
A successful mission at Heaton Mersey proved 
his evangelistic ability, and he was appointed, 
in 1 88 1, to be district missionary in Kent. 
Here, and for the three following years at 
Brentford, he met with great success, though 
he took many a good soul's breath away by his 
audacity and unconventionally in Christian 
work. In 1885 he came to Manchester to take 
charge of the attenuated Oldham Street con- 
gregation, dishoused during the erection of the 
Central Hall. Before the hall was up Mr. 
Collier had proved he was the man for it. He 
was appointed, through the influence of Dr. 
Pope, and all the world — the Methodist world, 
at any rate — knows what has followed. The 
last Manchester Conference found him win- 
ning his spurs in the heart of the city, and fif- 
teen years later we find him still in Manchester 
— thanks to the increasing common sense of 

234 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Methodism in the matter of difficult appoint- 
ments — and at the head of the greatest organ- 
ization for the salvation and uplifting of men 
that contemporary Christianity can show. 
Such, at all events, is the verdict of men like 
Dr. Maclaren and Dr. Robertson Nicoll. 
Though he hides himself behind his work, the 
Manchester Mission, in all its wonderful rami- 
fications and far-reaching activities, is, under 
God, very largely the creation of S. F. Col- 
lier's genius. Methodism is not yet fully 
aware what a treasure she possesses in this 
man. He is the Great Heart of our Church 
and time. In his own field of conflict he ful- 
fills and reminds one of Tennyson's words: 

' Great in council and great in war, 

Foremost captain of his time, 
Rich in saving common-sense, 
And, as the greatest only are, 
In his simplicity sublime.' " 



235 



AMERICAN METHODIST HISTORIC 
SHRINES 



Having, during the past twenty-four years, 
seven times crossed the sea in making pil- 
grimages to English Methodist shrines, such 
as are found only in Epworth, Bristol, Kings- 
wood, London, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and such 
places, we last month set out to do some of 
the historic places in our own better land. We 
started from Boston, which is rich in points 
of National interest, but poor in Methodist 
antiquities, save only the library and collec- 
tion of the New England Methodist Historical 
Society, with its spacious room in Wesleyan 
Building, adjoining Bromfield Street Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. There every book is 
card-catalogued, so that the visitor may in a 
few moments see if the desired volume is in 
the library. A few days later we stood amid 
the treasures stored in the American Meth- 

236 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



odist Historical Society's rooms in Baltimore, 
and also those in the rooms of the Historical 
Society of the Philadelphia Annual Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at 
1018 Arch Street, Philadelphia. We saw in 
both these places early Methodist books, 
pamphlets, pictures, manuscripts, relics, curios, 
etc., many of which can not be duplicated, and 
for the most of which, if one desires to pur- 
chase, he has either personally to go through 
the old bookstores of England and America 
with an X-ray, and then discover but little, 
or else hire some one to do so. This involves 
almost endless correspondence and items of 
expense, which foot up a surprising sum in 
comparison with the findings. Yet here these 
treasures are, many of them lying around 
loose, or shelved without classification and 
uncatalogued. These things are now inval- 
uable, and in the near future, when God gives 
the Church another great historian to rewrite 
our Methodist history, with the help of newly- 
found data, these collections will be far above 
all price. Could we but get the ear of the 
custodians of these treasures, we would cry 
aloud, and call upon them to spare not the 

237 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



expense necessary at once to set these houses 
in order before they die. 

We would also suggest that keys be left 
with the heads of the Book Depositories in the 
same buildings, so that proper visitors may 
have access to the cases. How trying to one's 
graces to have only a few hours to stay, and 
to stand — as we did in Baltimore, and came 
very near doing also in Philadelphia — outside 
of the locked-up treasures, and unable to find 
the holders of the keys ! To be so near, and 
yet so far ! British Methodists are waking 
up to the value of such things. Copying the 
example of their American brothers, they have 
organized a Methodist Historical Society in 
London. That tight little island is being ex- 
plored for all sorts of Wesleyana. If holders 
of early Wesley and other Methodist publica- 
tions are not willing to donate or sell, they 
are exhorted to catalogue and describe their 
treasures, and send a list thereof to head- 
quarters, so that the whereabouts of such 
things may be known, and inducements of- 
fered for their safekeeping and loan for ref- 
erence. The collection at Drew Theological 
Seminary is, on the whole, the finest we have 
238 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



seen on either side of the Atlantic, not ex- 
cepting that of the Methodist Historical So- 
ciety in the city of New York. Perhaps we 
count that the finest because we 4iave not yet 
seen the recently-acquired treasures of Garrett 
Biblical Institute, which, from accounts given 
of at least three thousand rare volumes re- 
cently added, must surpass anything we have 
yet seen. Certainly, if President C. J. Little, 
D. D., does n't know a good and rare thing 
in this line, who on this or any other conti- 
nent does? We learn that Professor Dr. 
Charles M. Stuart is also an enthusiast on all 
matters pertaining to the early history of 
Methodism, and especially of our own branch 
of the great family. We expect that when 
the clock strikes the hour, when the coming 
Methodist historian is due, he will at once set 
his face westward to find his material. It may 
be that he is now a student at Garrett, or 
Drew, where so much material is near at hand. 
Of course, we look not for him to come out 
of Boston Theological School, for it has al- 
most nothing on these lines in its library to 
inspire him. In its zeal for the new, it is very 
careful to show the utmost respect for the old 

239 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



things of Methodism, though but few find 
place upon its shelves. Wherever the coming 
man is, may he succeed with the present data, 
as did the father of Methodist history, Rev. 
Dr. Abel Stevens ! 

Let us pause a moment and thank God for 
that great gift to our Church. Be it known 
unto you, young man, who may be called to 
do this work, that yours is a more honored 
calling than even that to the bishopric in our 
Church. Where is a Methodist who does n't 
know the name of Stevens? Where is the 
Methodist who can give the names of the 
bishops of our Church from the beginning? 
What preacher who has n't a "B" in his bon- 
net can give the names of our living bishops 
in the order of their election, without at least 
thinking it up. The name of Stevens, the his- 
torian, will be remembered when those of 
nearly all our bishops will be entirely forgotten. 
What an opportunity for great usefulness, and, 
if unsought, great fame thrown into the bar- 
gain, awaits the coming historian of Meth- 
odism. The hardest portion of the American 
field has recently been worked by that master 
workman, John Atkinson, D. D. Its fruit, 
240 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the toil of years, lies at our elbow as we write ; 
it is the goodly volume we are now reread- 
ing, "The Beginnings of the Wesleyan Move- 
ment in America." Let every reader of these 
lines send to our Book Concern for this vol- 
ume. Put a copy into your Sunday-school 
library, and see that a copy is placed in your 
town or city library, so that all the Methodists 
in town may have the chance to read the fasci- 
nating story of the first seven years of Wes- 
leyan Methodist history in America. Having 
done this, you will want also to get from 
the same Concern, "Centennial History of 
American Methodism," by the same author. 
For the future historian there are also such 
data as the newly-discovered "Bennett Min- 
utes" of the earliest Methodist Conferences, 
published by the new Methodist Historical 
Society, of London, and access to Dr. Pil- 
moor's manuscript journals, which have 
changed so many statements of current Meth- 
odist histories, and are yet to change many 
others. That manuscript is owned by the His- 
torical Society at Philadelphia. 

How we longed to see and feel that old 
document that we had traveled so many miles 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



to reach ! But we could find no one who 
knew where it is stored for absolute safety. 
Next time, we will not omit to try and make 
an appointment with the librarian before we 
leave our New England home for the quest. 
With all this, and very much other later data, 
will not some reader, some competent preacher 
who has an easy charge — if such exists in the 
East, or in the West, — or some competent lay- 
man, like George Smith, LL. D., F. A. S., 
the historian of Wesleyan Methodism in Eng- 
land, gather new material from this mass, and 
give us the old, old story in a brand-new set- 
ting, with every statement up-to-date in its 
accuracy? Why not make Garrett Biblical 
Institute the central station to which all who 
have documents pertaining to early Methodist 
history shall report the same? English Meth- 
odist theological colleges have added a course 
in Methodist history. Would not a thorough 
grounding in the wonderful history of our 
Church at least help to stop the leakage from 
our theological schools and pulpits which 
flows into other denominations, some of which 
seem to be growing too feeble to generate their 
own ministry? The stories of ecclesiastical 
242 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



heroism and valor are not one whit less in- 
spiring than are those of military prowess. A 
leading pastor of a great denomination told 
us, awhile ago, that, feeling himself to be get- 
ting too far off from his people, he bridged 
over the chasm between his pulpit and pews 
with Tyerman's "Life of John Wesley," from 
the reading of which he dates a new departure 
in his ministry. 

A picture of a ship in full sail on the wall 
of a Vermont farmhouse made sailors of the 
three sons of that home, neither of whom had 
ever seen a real ship or the sea. It silently 
won them to Neptune's domains. Good Meth- 
odist books lying upon the table, not locked 
up in a case, and a good Church paper in 
every Methodist home, will win many a Meth- 
odist-born boy and girl to the Church of their 
fathers. Some who have strayed never saw 
such things in their homes. 



243 



THE OLDEST METHODIST CHURCH 
IN AMERICA— 1769-1896 



Having been born within three minutes' 
easy walk of the first Methodist church in the 
world, built in Bristol, England, by John Wes- 
ley in 1739, already described, and having 
been born again in the newer church, Old 
King Street, which almost adjoins it, we joy- 
fully anticipated a pilgrimage to America's 
oldest Methodist church. Old John Street 
Church in New York, though standing on 
holy ground, is the third edifice of that oldest 
society in America. Its date is 1841. No in- 
telligent Methodist, who can command a couple 
of hours when in New York, should fail to 
visit that deeply interesting and historic build- 
ing. But our first point objective is the oldest 
Methodist church in America — St. George's, 
on Fourth Street, Philadelphia. Often dur- 
ing the past decade have we longed to ex- 
244 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



plore it. More often have we reproved our- 
selves, because that, when in the city in 1876, 
we had not interest enough in the history of 
the Church of which the four of our company 
were ministers, for either of us to suggest, 
even if we knew of it, that we add this to the 
points of interest in the city outside of the 
great Centennial Exposition, which took us 
there. We were then passing through an in- 
fantile stage of ministerial life which dis- 
counts the study of our own Church history 
and speaks patronizingly of things Wesleyan. 

We found this sacred shrine on Fourth 
Street. Our first impression of its exterior, 
and later of its interior, was its freshness. 
Certainly it must have, many times in its his- 
tory of one hundred and thirty-seven years, 
put on newness of life. In this particular it is 
wholly unlike Wesley's first church, in Bristol, 
which is greatly dilapidated, and is yearly 
growing more so. The neat iron railings 
which inclosed it, the clean front with no 
broken plaster, contrast favorably with the 
broken iron gates which open on to the dirty 
passage which leads off the Broadmead side- 
walk up to the defaced, plastered front of 

245 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Methodism's first church in the world. How 
we would care for that old building, where 
occurred so many events that pertain to the 
beginnings of American Methodism, if it were 
only on our shores! We are glad the Phila- 
delphians so prize their shrine. Between the 
first and second windows over the main en- 
trance we read : "St. George's Church, founded 
A. D. 1763. Purchased by the Methodist So- 
ciety A. D. 1769. Remodeled A. D. 1837," 
all neatly inscribed on an oblong marble slab. 
A mural tablet on the left of the entrance is 
inscribed to the memory of "Rev. John 
Dickins, founder of the Methodist Book Con- 
cern of the United States, who died in 1789." 
On the right-hand side of this entrance is an- 
other slab which records, "The first Methodist 
Conference in America, consisting of ten mem- 
bers, was held in this church, July 14, 1773." 
Our traveling companion, a Congregational 
pastor, being a little out of his denomina- 
tional latitude, was really amused at the in- 
terest which these records of the Methodist 
Pilgrim fathers awakened in us. New Eng- 
land pastors of the "standing order" always 
think larger thoughts of Methodism after vis- 
246 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



king other States. We enter, and explore the 
building, and are again impressed with the 
scrupulous cleanness and neatness of every- 
thing in every part of the church. We were 
pained to learn the size of the average con- 
gregation which attends the faithful ministry 
of the much-loved pastor, whom we could 
not meet, he having been suddenly called to 
visit an injured parishioner. When we learned 
that she is practically the mother of four other 
strong Churches, and heard the story of the 
removals from the neighborhood, our sym- 
pathy went out toward the pastor who is stem- 
ming the tide. The present membership of 
275, with a Sunday-school of 290 members, 
and a Christian Endeavor Society of eighty 
members, mean much more than larger num- 
bers where the tide is flowing in. We confess 
to a feeling of incongruity on finding a Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society instead of an Epworth 
League in the old Church ; but we remembered 
we were in Philadelphia, in the banner State 
of Christian Endeavor. Here was new wine 
in an old bottle, and no bursting. The only 
approach to an explosion was from the janitor, 
when we asked him how it was that there was 



247 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

no Epworth League in that historic Meth- 
odist Church. 

The question naturally arises, How came 
these early Methodists by such an edifice ? The 
answer leads us back to the city of Meth- 
odism's first church, whence came my fellow- 
townsman, Captain Thomas Webb, of the 
English army. Well do we remember, in our 
boyhood days, worshiping in the mausoleum 
of that grand old Methodist soldier, which 
he was the chief instrument in building after 
his return to England. His much-cherished 
portrait in burnt glass, from which all our 
American portraits have been taken, used to 
hang in the little old preacher's vestry of Port- 
land Chapel. As we stand in St. George's 
pulpit, we remember that the first city pulpit 
we ever entered to preach from was Captain 
Webb's old pulpit, placed almost directly over 
the vault, which holds the tabernacle which 
he put off, after having been one of the chief 
founders of Methodism in America. This re- 
markably far-seeing man of God, though de- 
prived of one bodily eye, under General Wolfe 
at Quebec in 1758, in 1767 or 1768 came to 
Philadelphia from New York, where he had 
248 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



greatly helped to found Methodism, which 
under Wesley in England, had been made a 
blessing to him. Now he came to bear his 
testimony in the City of Brotherly Love. He 
was a local preacher, and now came pioneer- 
ing in Philadelphia. He seems to have had a 
liking for sail-lofts. One had been his chapel 
in New York City, and in Philadelphia he 
hired one near the drawbridge, which then 
spanned Dock Creek. Here was organized 
the first class-meeting in the Quaker City. 
The names of its seven members are pre- 
served : James Emerson and wife, Robert 
Fitzgerald and wife, Miles Pennington and 
wife, and John Hood. At least six heads of 
families are found in this first Philadelphia 
class-meeting, which was the germ-cell of 
Methodism in that city. 

Its present stage of evolution is a glad sur- 
prise to one from a New England city. Meet- 
ings afterwards were held "in a pothouse in 
Loxley's Court, which was a passage running 
from Arch to Cherry Street, near Fourth." 
Wesley had heard about the city from the 
Swedish pastor, Dr. Wrangle, who, on return- 
ing to Europe, called on Mr. Wesley at the old 
249 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



First Methodist Church in Bristol, and there 
preached for him with great acceptance. The 
rector of St. Paul's Church, near by, Rev. Mr. 
Stringer, seems to have been an ex-Methodist. 
Certainly he knew Mr. Wesley in England; 
therefore, when Webb pleaded for mission- 
aries from England to help on the work, and 
Boardman and Pilmoor were sent in 1769, Mr. 
Wesley had a good idea of the new field. They 
landed at Gloucester Point, October 21, 1769, 
and walked to Philadelphia, where Captain 
Webb and others were waiting with open arms 
and hearts to receive them. They found in 
all about one hundred persons as the fruit of 
the labors of Webb and others for about a 
year. Soon the pothouse became all too small 
for the gathered crowds. What should they 
do? Captain Webb had built the first Meth- 
odist church in America in New York; but 
how could such a work be done in Phila- 
delphia ? On Thursday, November 23d, about 
four weeks after the coming of the first mis- 
sionaries, they met to consult as to what could 
be done. Without a miracle, the very next 
day they worshiped in their new Methodist 
church — this very St. George's ! How could 
250 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



this be? The slab on the front of the church 
partly tells the story, "Founded A. D. 1763; 
purchased by the Methodist Society A. D. 
1769." The Dutch Presbyterians had begun 
to build, but were not able to finish. Tradi- 
tion says some of them went to debtor's prison 
because of the attempt. Two thousand pounds 
being expended, they could go no further. It 
was sold by auction to a weak-minded son 
of a high-minded Philadelphian for £700. His 
father gladly sold it to Captain Webb and 
other Methodists for £650. They consulted 
about it on Thursday, November 23, 1769; 
bought, moved in, and worshiped next day, 
Friday, November 24th, and on Sunday, No- 
vember 26th, had a great day in the old church 
in which so many great days have been ex- 
perienced since, and which seems good for at 
least one hundred years more of service. 

The story of this enterprise must have 
pleased Mr. Wesley. It was only a shell when 
they began there, as was his first church when 
he began services at Broadmead. The next 
week the workmen pounded by day, and the 
missionaries and Webb expounded in the even- 

251 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



ings ; thus the good work went on. Just how 
it looked that first week we know not; but an 
eye-witness describes it later as "without gal- 
leries within or railing without ; a dreary, cold- 
looking place in winter time, when, from the 
leaky stovepipe mended with clay, the smoke 
would frequently issue and fill the house. The 
front door was in the center. About twenty 
feet from the east end inside stood a square 
thing, not unlike a watch-box with the top 
sawed off, which served as a pulpit." Herein 
was held the first Methodist love-feast in 
America, March 23, 1770, nearly two months 
before the first was held in New York, says 
Pilmoor, who conducted both of them. The 
first Junior League — shall we call it? — was 
held there by Pilmoor, when, on Saturday, 
December 9, 1769, he "met the children for 
the first time." The second time was the fol- 
lowing Saturday. Pilmoor was great man 
enough to be able to "stretch himself," as did 
the ancient prophet, upon a child. The last 
time we stood in old John Street Church in 
New York City was one Saturday afternoon, 
when the pastor was delightfully engaged in 
252 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the same kind of work. Both were obeying 
Wesley's rule for a preacher, "Spend an hour 
a week with the children in every large town, 
whether you like it or not." The most notable 
event in this old church was the meeting of 
the first Methodist Conference in America, in 
I773- 



253 



A VISIT TO THE GRAVE OF A 
METHODIST APOSTLE 



True apostleship and apostolic succession 
are demonstrated by apostolical labors and 
success. Writers of Church history would do 
well to style the eighteenth century as the 
"second apostolic age.'*' The pioneers and 
founders of Methodism on this Continent 
would certainly be placed in the first rank. 
We have just returned from a July visit to 
the grave of one of these. The place is the 
quaint old garrison city of Halifax, the cap- 
ital of Nova Scotia, and the strongest British 
military and naval station in America. Of 
all the interesting places in the old city, one 
spot is more sacred to us than they all; it is 
found in the rear of Grafton Street Methodist 
Church, where, tiredly leaning against the 
graveyard embankment, near the back entrance 
to the church, along which the preacher walks 
when going to his pulpit, are four tombstones 

254 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



bearing the name of Black. The chief stone 
marks the resting-place of the tabernacle which 
was put off by Rev. William Black, the apostle 
and founder of Methodism in the British mari- 
time provinces. These include Nova Scotia, 
Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. 
We were led to this spot by one who had twice 
been pastor of this old church, and was then 
the able and honored editor of the Wesleyan — 
Rev. John Lathern, D. D. He was just the 
man we wanted to meet — full to the lips of 
Methodist historic lore and enthusiasm. His 
pen has done noble service in this cause. His 
diligent search has been rewarded by the rescue 
from oblivion of many facts and curios. He 
is a great admirer of the character and labors 
of our apostle, of whom he reverently speaks 
as "Bishop Black," although he was never or- 
dained to that office, but deacon, May 18th, 
and elder, May 19, 1789, at the hands of 
Bishop Coke. In the same year he was ap- 
pointed superintendent of the societies in Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, 
which office he held until age and infirmities 
disqualified him for such service. 

William Black was born in Huddersfield, 

255 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



England, in 1760. In 1775 his parents emi- 
grated to Nova Scotia, whither many families 
had gone to occupy the farms and lands va- 
cated by the expulsion of the Acadians, which 
Longfellow's "Evangeline" has immortalized. 
The Black family did not settle in "Grand 
Pre," but in Amherst, bordering on what was 
afterwards called New Brunswick. Some of 
these immigrants were Methodists, and held 
meetings, though they had no preacher or 
pastor. At a prayer-meeting, Mr. Black was 
soundly converted in the nineteenth year of 
his age. He seems at once to have caught the 
genius of Methodism and went to work for 
the Master. Finding a copy of Wesley's ser- 
mons, he saturated his mind with them in con- 
nection with his Bible study; and then, to in- 
crease his power of expression concerning the 
deep things of God and his Word, he imbibed 
freely of the nectar which flowed from Charles 
Wesley's pen. After two years of home study 
and labor, on November 10, 1781, thus 
equipped in heart and mind, he set out across 
the Tantramar marshes on his first evangelistic 
tour. Log cabins were his churches, and 
lonely woodsmen his hearers, on this journey. 
256 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



He soon saw that centers of population were 
the stragetic points. Windsor was the nearest 
center, and on May 26, 1781, he preached his 
first missionary sermon in Nova Scotia. On 
that Sunday, through all the vast domains 
of the present Canada, where Methodism is 
easily first in numbers and real strength in 
Upper and Lower Canada, and holds a high 
position in the eastern provinces, on that day, 
in 1 78 1, Mr. Black was the only Methodist 
preacher in all the Canadas. His first text 
was the same that Asbury chose for his first 
sermon on this continent, "For I determined 
not to know anything among you, save Jesus 
Christ and him crucified." This sermon was 
preached at Cornwallis, on his way to Wind- 
sor, which he reached by passing through the 
land of Evangeline on June 5th. We visited 
Windsor, and, by the courtesy of the president 
of the Epworth League, were shown all the 
points of Methodist and other historic interest 
in that beautiful town. 

After a brief trip to Halifax, the capital, 
we find him, on the 16th, again at Windsor, 
furthering the well-begun work by open-air 
services and organization of the forces won 
17 257 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

from the enemy. An old-fashioned love-feast 
concluded this ever-memorable visit. Up to 
this time Mr. Black was but an evangelist. He 
now becomes, in name as well as labors, an 
itinerant preacher. A circuit was formed, 
reaching to Halifax on the east, and to Annap- 
olis on the west. Two years later two fleets 
and more than twenty thousand loyalist immi- 
grants landed at Port Roseway and Shelburne, 
from New York, New England, and else- 
where. Among these were some Methodists 
from old John Street Church, New York, and 
other places. Black is now re-enforced by 
Local Preacher John Mann. He and his 
brother James, soon became itinerant preach- 
ers on this great circuit, which in two years 
was washed by the Atlantic on the one end 
and the mouth of the St. Lawrence on the 
other. Now, early in 1783, began a corre- 
spondence with Mr. Wesley, who reminds 
Black "that Nova Scotia [then understood to 
include New Brunswick] and Newfoundland 
were sufficient for one circuit, and it was not 
expedient to take in any part of the United 
States." 

During all this time Mr. Black, notwith- 
258 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



standing his great success, keenly felt his need 
of a liberal education. He wrote Mr. Wesley, 
asking him to admit him to Kingswood School, 
and to send out preachers to carry on the 
work in the provinces. Wesley called for vol- 
unteers, but none responded. Black could not 
be released from the work ; so, on February 
17, 1784, he wisely did the next best thing 
under his peculiar circumstances, he took to 
himself a helper in the gospel, one of his own 
converts, for his wife — Miss Mary Gay, for- 
merly of Boston, but then a loyalist refugee 
at Cumberland with her parents. For forty- 
three years this noble woman was his help- 
meet in the gospel, and, in the seventy-third 
year of her age, she went up to her corona- 
tion. Her sacred dust lies beside that of her 
husband and her children and grandchildren 
in the old graveyard of Grafton Street Church. 
"Her memory is blessed, and her works follow 
her." We hear all too little of the noble 
women pioneers of Methodism. Mr. Wesley, 
on hearing of Mr. Black's marriage, wrote, 
saying, "that as he had entered into the mar- 
riage relation, he despaired of meeting him in 
this world." He never met him on earth ; for 

259 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

when Black visited his native land, where he 
would have liked to travel a circuit, Mr. Wes- 
ley had departed. 

Help Mr. Black must have; therefore he 
attended the famous Christmas Conference of 
1784, where was organized the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. On his way to Baltimore he 
preached with great success at Boston, New 
York, and Long Island, whence he proceeded 
to Baltimore, and met Dr. Coke and Francis 
Asbury. At the Conference he secured two 
noble helpers — Freeborn Garrettson and James 
O. Cromwell. One of the first acts, if not the 
very first, after the organization of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, was to take up a mis- 
sionary collection for these brethren bound 
for Nova Scotia. Garrettson and Cromwell 
soon sailed from New York, whilst Black went 
back to Hingham, near Boston, for his wife. 
The schooner putting in at Cape Cod, Black 
preached six sermons at Barnstable, the first 
Methodist sermons on that cape. Soon he is 
in Boston again, in abundant labors there. 
Like those of Boardman before him, the re- 
sults of these labors, great though they were, 
were not organized into permanent form, else 
260 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Jesse Lee could not later have won the crown 
he did in Boston. In May, 1784, he returned 
to Halifax, and, with Garrettson and Crom- 
well, toiled and triumphed from end to end 
of the provinces. During all this time he is 
unordained; but at Philadelphia, in 1789, he 
secured ordination with John and James Mann. 
In 1 79 1 he goes to Newfoundland, where 
Richard Coughlin began work in 1765, one 
year before Embury in New York. Here 
Black "rode in a triumphal chariot." In 1792 
Dr. Coke wished him to take charge of the 
missions in the West Indies. He went with 
Coke, returned for his family, but the Nova 
Scotia Methodists would not give him up. 
An attempt of Coke to send him to Bermuda 
failed, because no vessel bound thither would 
then carry a Methodist preacher. Henceforth, 
until his decease on September 8, 1834, Mr. 
Black lived and labored amid the scenes of 
his pioneer toils. August 11, 1827, with the 
words, "Christ is exceedingly precious ; I shall 
soon be with him," upon her lips, his beloved 
wife fell asleep in Jesus. Seven years later, Sep- 
tember 8, 1834, whilst saying, "All is well," 
the Rev. William Black, pioneer and founder 
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Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 

of Methodism in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward 
Island, and New Brunswick, his "body with 
his charge laid down and ceased at once to 
work and live." The simple inscription upon 
his tombstone reads : 

Filial Affection 
Erects 
This Stone 
In Memory of 
The Rev. William Black, 
who died 8th Sept., 1834, 
Aged 74 years. 
For upwards of 50 years he was engaged 
In the Gospel Ministry, 
And to many who now surround him on their dusty 
bed he was the joyful messenger of 
grace. His name is endeared to thousands, 
And will be associated with their most cherished rec- 
ollections in that world of bliss, where " those that 
turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars 
for ever and ever." 

Later in the day we had the pleasure of 
meeting the only surviving member of the 
Black family — the wife of a wealthy and hon- 
ored physician of Halifax, Dr. Parker, and 
granddaughter of Rev. William Black. 



262 



HEADSPRINGS OF METHODIST 
LITERATURE 



I. ENGLISH 

Methodist books, newspapers, pamphlets, 
and tracts are every day falling from Meth- 
odist presses like leaves from the tree of life 
for the healing of nations. Let us briefly trace 
this broad river of water of life to its sources. 
The sources are Wesleyan. Passing over the 
works of the father of the Wesleys, whose 
"Maggots/' "Athenian Gazette," "Life of 
Christ" (1693), and "The History of the Old 
and New Testament Attempted in Verse" 
(1704), "Dissertationes In Librum Jobi," all 
in splendid preservation, look down from my 
shelves as I write, we find the springs of Meth- 
odist literature in the hearts and minds of John 
and Charles Wesley. John Wesley's first ven- 
ture to print was in 1733, when "A Collection 
of Forms of Prayer for Every Day in the 
263 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



Week" appeared. It was "for the use of my 
pupils." After the Methodist movement began, 
it went through at least eight editions for the 
use of Methodists. "A Treatise on Christian 
Prudence," his second venture, in 1734, was 
also sent through four editions in fifty years. 
In 1735 "The Christian's Pattern," extracted 
from the "Imitation of Christ," by Thomas a 
Kempis, followed. It also is still issued by 
the original Book Concern in London. We 
were greatly interested whilst exploring this 
old Wesleyan Methodist Book Room in City 
Road. How the mouth watered, as in the 
Conference library, in the attic of the build- 
ing, we saw and handled first editions of nearly 
all the publications of John and Charles Wes- 
ley! Grace abounded; for, though allowed to 
stay alone as long as we pleased, we did not 
even crack the command, "Thou shalt not 
covet." John Wesley's first printed sermon 
appeared in 1735. It was first republished in 
a volume of Charles Wesley's sermons issued 
in 1816. After another sermon in 1735, 
America is to print his next work, "A Collec- 
tion of Psalms and Hymns," Charleston, 
printed by Lewis Timothy, 1737. Mr. Brooke, 
264 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



of London, the finder of a copy of this work 
unknown to most of our Methodist hym- 
nologists, told me the story of its discovery by 
himself. Only two original copies are known 
to exist. This lucky find leads to America 
as the headspring of Wesleyan hymnology. 
Two other hymn-books with this same title, 
and a third with "For the Lord's Day" added, 
were issued in 1738, 1741, and 1784, respect- 
ively, all printed in London, but each differ- 
ent from the other. My first class-leader, the 
late Rev. S. R. Hall, owned one of the only 
two known copies of 1738. The other may 
be seen in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lam- 
beth Palace. Its American namesake of 1737 
has deprived it of the long-worn honor of 
being the first Methodist hymn-book. Wes- 
ley's first named English printer and publisher 
was C. Rivington, at the Bible and Crown, in 
St. Paul's Churchyard, 1735. 

On his return from America in 1738, his 
publisher was the good Moravian, "James 
Hutton at the Bible and Sun, next the Rose 
Tavern without Temple Bar." Probably he 
made his acquaintance at Fetter Lane Chapel, 
near by. After his break with the Moravians 
265 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



his unsold books were stored in Mr. Bray's 
house in Little Britain, until in 1739, when 
the Foundry was taken, repaired, and the 
end of the bandroom fitted with shelves for 
the first Methodist Book Concern. Here were 
its headquarters for forty years, until removed 
to City Road Chapel premises. During this 
time, "Sold at the Foundry" was the familiar 
phrase. Wesley's first book "agents" were 
Thomas Butts and William Briggs. They 
were succeeded by Samuel Francks. He was 
the man who packed up the parcel of books 
included in the fifty pounds collected for 
Boardman and Pilmoor, Wesley's first mis- 
sionaries to America. "Poor Francks," as 
John Wesley called him, under pressure of 
disease, hanged himself in the Foundry in 
1773. A fortnight later, Matthews, the 
Foundry schoolmaster, followed his sad ex- 
ample. Mr. Wesley then appointed his first 
Book Steward, John Atlay. He served five 
years, though he showed his incompetence by 
telling Mr. Wesley that his London stock of 
books was worth £13,000, when its real worth 
was only £5,000. George Whitfield (not the 
great evangelist Whitefield) followed, from 
266 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



1779 to 1804; Robert Lomas, from 1804 to 
1808 ; Thomas Blanchard, from 1808 to 1823 ; 
John Kershaw, from 1823 to 1827, when John 
Mason was called to the helm. He, during 
his nearly thirty-seven years of service, saved 
it from financial wreck, and, within half an 
hour of taking his hand from the helm, in 
1864, "his body with his charge laid down, 
and ceased at once to work and live." Dr. 
Jobson succeeded him, until his death in 1881. 
The present Book Steward is well known to 
American Methodists — the Rev. Charles H. 
Kelley, D. D. The new headquarters from 
which came all our English supplies from 1777 
to 1808 was the house adjoining the Morning 
Chapel, and the packing and storage was done 
under the Morning Chapel. When removed 
to its present quarters, 14 City Road, Joseph 
Benson occupied the vacated house, and there 
wrote his commentary on the Bible. Wesley 
seems to have had the most of his books 
printed in Bristol, where he really began his 
evangelistic work, and where he built his first 
church, and where Charles Wesley lived and 
wrote for twenty-two years. 

Two printers' names are familiar on the 
267 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



title-pages of early Methodist books and 
pamphlets — Farley and Pine, Bristol. John 
Wesley's sermon on "Free Grace/' which 
drove off the Calvinists, was preached in Bris- 
tol in 1739, and printed by S. and F. Farley. 
These were sons of Samuel Farley, who 
founded the Bristol Postman in 1713, con- 
tinued in the Bristol Times and Mirror of to- 
day, the oldest Bristol newspaper. John Wes- 
ley thus sought the best printer for his works. 
Samuel and Felix, and Elizabeth, the widow 
of Felix Farley, printed for him until he 
changed, in 1759, to John Grabham and Wil- 
liam Pine. It was Pine who so mutilated 
Wesley's notes on the Old Testament in 1765. 
From three great centers all the earliest Meth- 
odist literature flowed over the world — from 
London, Bristol, and Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
Here was stored the ammunition with which 
the devil was fought by means of printer's 
ink and Wesley's free-press gang. From the 
first work of John Wesley, from the press 
in 1733, until the last one in 1791, which 
was probably "The New Testament, with an 
Analysis of the Several Books and Chapters," 
no less than four hundred and thirteen pub- 
268 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



lications were issued by John and Charles 
Wesley. The Arminian Magazine was in 
its fourteenth yearly volume when he died. 
It is issued in monthly parts until this day, 
and its able editor, Rev. W. L-. Watkin- 
son, a delegate to our General Conference, 
charmed American Methodists with his Chris- 
tian spirit and God-given gifts, which he 
is now using in the work of this, the oldest 
religious magazine extant. It is now in its 
one hundred and twenty-fifth year. A com- 
plete set, with more than thirteen hundred por- 
traits, and not a page nor letter missing, have 
their calf backs toward me as I write. Along- 
side of them is "The Christian Library," com- 
plete in fifty volumes. This work John Wes- 
ley projected in his little attic study in the 
second Methodist church in the world, known 
as the "Orphan House," in Newcastle-on- 
Tyne. There Grace Murray kept house for 
Wesley and his preachers. But for the inter- 
ference of Whitefield and Charles Wesley she 
would have become Wesley's wife. The build- 
ing was demolished, but the little study, eleven 
feet square, was bought by Sol. Mease, Esq., 
and taken, piece by piece, to his estate in 
269 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



North Shields, and re-erected, where it may 
be seen to-day. In it he decided on "a pop- 
ular library of three, or even fourscore vol- 
umes." He completed it in fifty. He lost 
"above £200" by the venture. In 1771 John 
Wesley published the first edition of his "Col- 
lected works" in thirty-two volumes. A copy 
of that edition is ranged above the "Christian 
Library," together with many other rare Wes- 
ley publications, such as "Wesley's Philoso- 
phy," five volumes; "Ecclesiastical History," 
four volumes; "History of England," four 
volumes ; and — will you believe it ? — Wesley's 
novel, "The Fool of Quality," by Henry 
Brooke, abridged and issued in two volumes 
under the title of "The History of Henry, Earl 
of Moreland," for the use of Methodists. A 
copy of each of John Wesley's only two music 
books, "Sacred Melody with Grounds of Vocal 
Music," 1770, and "Sacred Melody," 1781, and 
a large number of earliest editions of hymns, 
etc., in tract form, help make up my collection 
of earliest Wesleyan literature. If the for- 
bearing reader will allow, we will lead him 
up to the headsprings of American Methodist 
literature before bidding him adieu. 

270 



HEADSPRINGS OF METHODIST 
LITERATURE 



II. AMERICAN 

Preaching and printing have been two 
great agencies by which Methodists from the 
beginning have sought to extend Christ's king- 
dom in the earth. The Prophet Wesley wrote 
as well as spoke. He also encouraged his help- 
ers to write as well as speak. He insisted that 
his preachers should at least distribute good 
books among the people. Of the products of 
his own pen and scissors we have already 
spoken. Whitefield was a preacher; Wesley 
was a preacher, writer, and organizer. The 
living voice ceased, the organization remained, 
and the printed page yet speaketh. True to its 
genius, Methodism in America adopted the pen 
and the press as its handmaids for service. 
The earliest Wesleyan books were the few 
brought over in the trunks and bags of the 
immigrants, who came chiefly from Ireland. 
271 



4 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



The first bit of American Methodist literature 
we know of is a quarterly ticket issued by 
Robert Williams, the Irish itinerant, who pre- 
ceded Boardman and Pilmoor by about two 
months in New York in 1769. He was im- 
patient for the battle, and, with Wesley's con- 
sent, came over and labored on the self-sup- 
porting plan, agreeing to submit himself to 
Wesley's missionaries on their arrival. Under 
his ministry, Jesse Lee, the apostle of New 
England Methodism, was converted. He, on 
his own authority, reprinted and circulated 
Wesley's sermons. He was the first Methodist 
publisher in America. The Book Concern was 
all his own until the Conference of 1773 regu- 
lated him and it. The books brought from 
England by Boardman and Pilmoor as a part 
of the contribution of English Methodists to 
the John Street Church's debt really formed 
the nucleus of our first Book Depository. Cap- 
tain Webb and others sold them for the society. 

The first native American Methodist author 
was William Watters. His first work, which 
was anonymous, "A Short Account of the Life 
and Death of William Adams, a Youth of Vir- 
ginia, Drawn up by a Friend Personally Ac- 
272 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



quainted with the Deceased/' was printed, after 
much effort by Watters to find a publisher, 
by "Melchior Steiner, in Race Street, near 
Third Street, Philadelphia, MDCCLXXXII." 
One copy of the three thousand then printed 
is treasured in the American Methodist His- 
torical Society of Baltimore. It is to be con- 
gratulated on possessing a copy of this "the 
first literary product of American Methodism." 
We know of no other copy. The subject of the 
memoir was Watters's brother-in-law. In 1806 
"A Short Account of the Christian Experience 
and Ministerial Labors of William Watters, 
Drawn up by Himself," appeared. Until 1789 
Methodist books were either imported from 
England, or published by individual enter- 
prise. Then, as in English Methodism, a Book 
Steward was appointed in the person of John 
Dickins, who was also a preacher in charge 
at Philadelphia. Associated with him were 
Philip Cox and William Thomas, who oper- 
ated the Western, while Dickins cared for the 
Eastern section of the work. In 1790 the Con- 
cern found a local habitation as well as a name, 
for "Methodist books for sale" might have been 
seen at 43 Fourth Street, very near the spot 
18 273 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



where Walters found a publisher for his first 
book, eight years before. The earliest known 
catalogue is found bound up with "Posthumous 
Pieces of Rev. John William de la Flechere," 
etc., dated 1793, two years older than the cata- 
logue published in the "Methodist Year-Book," 
1895. The story of John Dickins borrowing 
$600 of himself in order to found the business 
is well known. The new establishment seemed 
to regard itself as subject to the law of the 
itinerancy, for in 1792 it moved into 182 Race 
Street ; in 1794 to No. 44 North Second Street, 
near Arch; in 1795 to No. 50 on the same 
street, where it remained until the death of 
Mr. Dickins, in 1798. Then the little Concern 
was $4,500 in debt, but the assets yielded about 
$4,000 as the net gain over all liabilities of 
Dickins's nine years of administration. He is- 
sued eighteen different works. As no print- 
ing was done on the premises, to itinerate was 
easy. One horse and cart could- do the busi- 
ness in a short time. 

In 1799, Ezekiel Cooper succeeded Dickins. 
He moved to No. 47 North Fourth Street, and 
in 1800 moved again to No. 18 on the same 
street, which continued to be headquarters un- 
274 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



til, by vote of the General Conference, in 1804, 
it was removed to New York, evidently to the 
satisfaction of the Philadelphians, who did not 
seem to value its presence among them. Balti- 
more came within two votes of securing it. 
The first printers were not Pritchard and Hall, 
as commonly reported, for my first American 
edition of Wesley's Notes on the New Testa- 
ment says : Vol. I, "printed by John Cruk- 
shank;" Vol. II, by "Charles Cist;" Vol. Ill, 
by "Pritchard and Hall." Parry and Hall, 
Henry Tuckniss, William W. Woodward, and 
"Solomon W. Conrad of Pewter-Platter Alley, 
No. 22," successively printed for the Concern 
during its location in the Quaker City. Ezekiel 
Cooper, pastor and book steward, closed his 
first quadrennium with property valued at 
$27,000, a net gain in four years of $23,000. 
Why the Philadelphians were not proud of this 
good work in their city we can not tell. Re- 
moved to New York City it, in 1804, located 
in Gold Street. The city directory of 1805 
shows it had moved to 249 Pearl Street, where 
it remained three or four years, then moved to 
Church Street, corner of White Street, num- 
bered and renumbered 139, 168, and 192, but 

275 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



all on the corner of White Street. Here it had 
a Sabbatic rest, for not until 1816 did it move 
again, this time to 41 John Street, not far 
from the first Methodist church in America. 
The directory of 1818 locates it here, whence 
in 1 82 1 it moved to 5 Chatham Square, where 
two larger rooms were secured. In 1823-4 we 
find it at 55 Fulton Street, with a bindery, 
started in 1822, in the basement of the Wes- 
leyan Seminary in Crosby Street. Nathan 
Bangs made this new departure, and, with John 
Emory, appointed in 1824, opened a printing 
office in the upper story of the Academy Build- 
ing. This was the first Methodist press in 
America. Both English and American Meth- 
odism henceforth do their own printing. It 
was a success from the first. In 1824 the Acad- 
emy Building was bought, and enlarged, in 
1827, by a front section. This was a bold ven- 
ture, and proved to be a great success. Until 
1833 all our Methodist literature flowed out 
from this headspring. 

In 1832, Beverly Waugh and Thomas Mason 
became Agents. The next year they erected 
the elegant and commodious building at 200 
Mulberry Street, which, three years later, was 
276 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



totally destroyed by fire at a loss to the house 
of $250,000. Now, for the first time, the Con- 
cern asked for contributions, which were soon 
secured to the amount of $89,000, with which 
they rebuilt, on the same site, the fine structure 
which was used until 1870, when 805 Broad- 
way was purchased, with a view to having all 
departments under one roof. This was found 
impracticable, and the magnificent structure, 
150 Fifth Avenue, which cost the Church about 
$1,000,000, was built. We recently explored it 
from cellar to attic, and concluded that, after 
fourteen removals, it had at last found suitable 
quarters, and could certainly now gratefully 
ask to be released from the itinerant plan for a 
long term of years at the least. From out this 
springhouse flows a continuous stream of pure 
literature westward, until it is joined by that 
which flows from the Western Concern at Cin- 
cinnati, which, from being a mere eddy in 1820, 
has become a mighty fountain-head, until its 
volume has become greater than that of the 
parent spring. During the administration of 
Dr. (now Bishop) Cranston and his associates 
it has handed over to benevolences more than 
the original capital he found when he entered 
277 



Pilgrimages to Methodist Shrines 



the office. From these two centers and their 
Depositories at Boston, Pittsburg, Buffalo, De- 
troit, San Francisco, Chicago, and Kansas City, 
and from other centers, such as at Baltimore, 
which are not technically Depositories, come 
pure books and periodicals, which should find 
their way into all Methodist homes. 

When Methodist parents refuse to take a 
Church paper because, being better, it costs a 
little more than some others, how can they won- 
der that their children imbibe strange notions, 
and become estranged from the Church of their 
parents? When Methodist Sunday-schools re- 
fuse to buy of their own mother, at the old 
stand, where they can be sure of what they put 
into the library, because irresponsible publish- 
ers offer books the same size in bulk for a trifle 
less money, what wonder if such schools fail 
of their mission ? If every Methodist would be 
loyal to our Book Concerns for the next quad- 
rennium, and take and read, mark, learn, and 
inwardly digest one of our good Church papers 
each week, we would be able to chronicle more 
stalwart Methodist Christians — more, and of 
better quality than we can now conceive. Let 
us be loyal to our own Methodist literature. 
278 



APPENDIX 



A GREAT WESLEYAN— WILLIAM 
ARTHUR AS A SPIRITUAL 
POWER 

[Reprinted from The Homiletic Monthly, February, 1902.] 

Among God's greatest gifts to his Church 
during the nineteenth century, "for the per- 
fecting of the saints, for the work of the min- 
istry," was his gift to the Wesleyan branch 
of the Church, and through them to the whole 
Church, and to the world — the gift of William 
Arthur. Viewed as student, missionary, mis- 
sionary advocate, educator, or preacher, in any 
one of these lights he was indeed a great spir- 
itual power. The early Wesleyans complained 
to John Wesley that he spent too much time 
in evangelizing Ireland. He bade them have 
patience, and Ireland would repay for the 
work done there. It did well repay. The 
279 



Appendix 



pioneers of Methodism in America were Irish 
immigrants. Barbara Heck, the mother of 
American Methodism; Philip Embury and 
Robert Strawbridge, the first preachers, were 
Irish Methodists. Ireland gave to English 
Methodism Adam Clarke, the great Bible com- 
mentator, and many of her early preachers. 
Had Ireland produced only William Arthur, 
then John Wesley's labors would have been 
well repaid. 

William Arthur was well born. His parents 
were always "church" people at Glendum, near 
Kells, in County Antrim, where, on February 
3, 1819, William was born to them. At twelve 
years of age he was taken to Newport, near 
Westport, in County Mayo, where he was born 
again, by God's blessing upon Methodist 
preaching in that place. He was called to 
preach as a local preacher at sixteen years 
of age. His gifts, graces, and usefulness for 
two years as a local preacher resulted in his 
being accepted as a candidate for the traveling 
connection in the Irish Conference in 1837. 
He had been educated under the Rev. Mr. 
Creighton, a Presbyterian, who kept what was 
regarded as the best school in the west of 
280 



Appendix 



Ireland. He was also a member of the rec- 
tor's Sunday-school class in Newport. Thus 
the Episcopal and the Presbyterian Churches 
of Ireland influenced his young life. It re- 
mained for Methodism to lead him to the life 
eternal. About 1835 tne R- ev - J onn Holmes, 
stationed at Westport, held a Methodist mis- 
sion in Newport. The good rector said: "Ah, 
there is one lad there who is too wise a bird 
to be caught with Methodist chaff." He was 
caught and converted to Christ and to the 
Methodist Church. He spent one year in a 
merchant's office, there tasting business life. 
He was a great reader, especially of poetry. 

When he stood at the bar of the Confer- 
ence, at Cork, seeking admission, he was a 
very desirable candidate. Dr. Jabez Bunting 
was president. Looking at him, he said to one 
of the leading ministers, "I wish you would 
give us that young man for India." The Rev. 
Thomas Waugh replied, "Then we make you 
a present of him for India." He was sent to 
the Theological Institution at Hoxton, near 
London. He entered in 1837. The college 
then had John Hunt, James Calvert, and Wil- 
liam Arthur — a holy and useful trio. John 
281 



Appendix 



Hunt's favorite theme was entire sanctification. 
This he professed to experience, and of this 
he wrote. His missionary labors were great, 
but James Calvert, his fellow-student, became 
one of the greatest of missionaries. William 
Arthur in many respects became the greatest 
of the three. One who knew him there said 
that at college he was devoutly pious. At the 
college prayer-meetings he literally poured out 
his soul unto God in prayer for the salvation 
of the world. One one occasion he was so 
earnest in prayer that he was picked up by a 
fellow student from the floor in a state of un- 
consciousness, so mightily had he wrestled 
with God. Hoxton College was to him the 
upper-room, where he received great baptisms 
for his future ministry. He was a spiritual 
power among his fellow-students. How much 
they owed to him no mortal tongue can tell. 

While there he used to preach occasionally 
at old Middlesex Chapel, in Hackney. A mu- 
tual friend, who used then to hear him, de- 
scribes him as "a wiry little man, full of ac- 
tivity." He boarded with the Rev. Elijah 
Hoole, D. D., a returned missionary from 
India. At this home and school he was trained 
282 



Appendix 



for work in Mysore, for which he sailed in 
1839. Ill health necessitated his return in 
1841. All this proved to be a part of his train- 
ing for his great life work in Great Britain. 
His experiences in India enabled him to write 
one of his best books, "Mission to the My- 
sore," which was published in 1847, after it 
had appeared in The Wesleyan Methodist 
Magazine. Henceforth his mission was to 
Boulogne, Paris, Belfast in Ireland, but chiefly 
to London and all England. For eight or ten 
years after his return from India, says one 
who knew, "he might fairly be described as 
the most popular speaker in England." His 
two years in India had so broken his health 
that for months after his return he could 
neither read nor write. This he turned to his 
advantage by disciplining himself so that he 
could think out, and think through, his 
speeches and sermons without putting pen to 
paper. This mental method of preparation 
proved invaluable to him in later years. On 
his return in 1841 he labored for one year 
in City Road Chapel, London — Wesley's 
chapel. Then he was for three years in the 
employ of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary 
283 



Appendix 



Committee, which sent him all over England 
in its advocacy. With him upon the mission- 
ary platforms, they were centers of attraction 
and spiritual power. In 1846 he was sent to 
Boulogne, and in 1847 to Paris. For two 
years in the capital city of France he drew 
and held large congregations. 

In the Conference of 1848 he was asked 
for as a fifth secretary of the Missionary Soci- 
ety, "to speak at the chief public meetings 
throughout the land, and to stir up the collect- 
ors everywhere." In pleading for this, Dr. 
Gregory said : "It has been my happy lot to 
hear Mr. Arthur on the platform many times 
and in many places, and I could not but regard 
him as one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish 
orators, with all the glow and lofty passion of 
a Grattan, and all his dignified and compressed 
argumentativeness." But he was sent back to 
Paris until 1849, when he returned to London 
to labor in the Hinde Street Circuit. Being 
now thirty years of age, and settled in circuit 
work, he married a most estimable Christian 
lady, Miss Ogle, of Leeds. He had a fortune 
in her, and soon a goodly fortune came to him 
with her. Heretofore his means had been very 
284 



Appendix 



limited. The next year he was removed to 
Great Queen Street Circuit, London. His 
ministry there was cut short by Dr. Bunting's 
retirement from the missionary secretaryship, 
in 185 1, he having been appointed to succeed 
the great Doctor. Though then only thirty- 
two years of age, he had become famous as a 
lecturer. Freemason's Hall resounded with 
his great lectures on "Mohammedanism" in 
1847, "The French Revolution of 1848." Of 
this he had been an eyewitness in Paris. Then 
Exeter Hall rang with his "The Church in the 
Catacombs," "Heroes," "The Extent, Moral 
Statistics, etc., of the British Empire." This 
last was a marvelous production. Not a word 
of it had been written before delivery. It was 
fully reported by a stenographer and revised 
by the author. The Young Men's Christian 
Association and the Bible Society had no abler 
lecturer and advocate than William Arthur, 
now secretary of the Missionary Society. His 
defense of the "Old Body" in the great agita- 
tion of the "Reformers," especially his appeal 
against the cry, "Stop the Supplies," were 
marvels of eloquence, and greatly helped to 
stem the tide of fierce opposition. 

285 



Appendix 



During those years of trial no one man or 
minister did more to save Wesleyan Meth- 
odism from disintegration than did William 
Arthur. The Christlike spirit of the orator, 
his holy calm amid the strife of those times, 
held many leading families to the Church of 
their fathers. This appointment as mission- 
ary secretary practically ended his life as a cir- 
cuit preacher, but opened out to him a field 
of very great usefulness. A hearer of one of 
his missionary speeches says: "He told the 
story of his mission in India, and how he 
toiled in vain, as it seemed to him; how his 
colleague was stricken and died, and how he 
himself, not knowing how soon he might fol- 
low him, dug his grave and buried him, not 
a native sympathizer being present. He con- 
cluded by saying that he did not tell the story 
to rouse sympathy for individuals. All they 
had done, or could do, was too little for so 
good a cause, and then followed a brilliant 
appeal, in which he indulged in a little pleas- 
antry." 

He was greatly handicapped in his work by 
poor health. Oftentimes he could not see to 
read. Frequently he lost his voice. When 
286 



Appendix 



he could not speak, but could see to write, he 
wrote his addresses and borrowed a voice to 
deliver them, sometimes sitting by the reader 
of his own productions. He kept a busy as 
well as a gifted pen, as the long list of his 
writings shows. We will not here enumerate 
the list, of which "The Tongue of Fire" is 
certainly the greatest as a spiritual power. If 
every preacher would but read it through at 
least once a year, it would certainly fire his 
soul with new enthusiasm for the souls of men. 
This was written by an amenuensis, a warm- 
hearted Irishman, who told a friend of ours 
that "when Mr. Arthur gave him the closing 
paragraph of that work he rose from his seat, 
crossed over to Mr. Arthur, gripped his hand, 
and said that generations to come would bless 
him for such words of inspiration." It was a 
true prophecy. William Arthur's "Tongue of 
Fire" still speaks to the Church, to our spir- 
itual profit. Perhaps "The Duty of Giving 
Away a Stated Portion of Our Income" stands 
next to "The Tongue of Fire" as a spiritual 
power. The substance of this he used to give 
in a lecture on "Gold and the Gospel." On 
this theme he discoursed in Broadway Taber- 
287 



Appendix 



nacle, New York City, during his first visit 
to America in 1855. It was published in 
"Arthur in America/' by Strickland, in 1856. 
He practiced what he preached on giving to 
God's cause. When he was poor, he gave out 
of his poverty; when rich, he gave of his 
abundance. He reckoned himself God's stew- 
ard, whether he owned only shillings or sover- 
eigns. His "Successful Merchant" had a very 
large sale for a book of its kind, and greatly 
helped Christian business men of at least two 
generations. 

Probably to many readers the pulpit will be 
the most interesting place in which to see 
William Arthur. The first time we heard this 
saintly preacher was in 1862. We see him 
now as he emerges from the preacher's vestry : 
his slightly built frame, firm step, pale but 
beautiful face, full of refinement. He walked 
down those vestry stairs as though he had first 
been up on the mount communing with God. 
He had been there, as was his wont, before 
preaching. As he ascended the pulpit stairs 
he glanced at the congregation and seemed to 
say, "I have a message from God for you 
to-day." His reading of the service from the 
288 



Appendix 



Book of Common Prayer was full of spirit 
and of life. His extempore prayer before the 
sermon showed he had power with God. His 
text that morning was one of his favorites : 
"For the Lamb which is in the midst of the 
throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of waters : and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 
vii, 17.) For about forty minutes we sat as 
it were in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus. 
The clear thought of the discourse made listen- 
ing easy. The simple yet beautiful diction 
and the silvery utterance of the speaker ar- 
rested and held the audience until the close 
of the service. Pervading the whole sermon 
was that undefinable "unction" which only 
those who feel it know. The influence of that 
morning service is with us yet. We expect 
to carry some of it with us up to that throne 
about which the preacher discoursed that 
morning. Never can we forget a later dis- 
course of his on "Be ye therefore perfect, even 
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 
He himself enjoyed the perfect love about 
which he preached. The sermon clarified all 
our previous reading and thinking on that 
19 289 



Appendix 



great text and subject. The greatest occasion 
on which we listened to him was at the Con- 
ference in Bristol in 1867. He was ex-presi- 
dent that year. As such he delivered the 
charge to sixty-two newly-ordained ministers. 
It was based on : "Take heed unto thyself, and 
unto the doctrine ; continue in them : for in 
doing this thou shalt both save thyself and 
them that hear thee." (1 Tim. iv, 16.) He 
began by saying: "Here you have the end of 
your calling, the means to that end, and the 
reward if those means are used." He first 
drew the awful picture of an ordained minister 
who does not save himself ; instancing Judas 
the apostle and apostate. He pictured a 
mother showing portraits of ministers in the 
magazine, and extolling their virtues, but pass- 
ing hurriedly over the portrait of a fallen min- 
ister. He urged the young men to seek to be 
saved from a damaged reputation, a barren 
respectability, a mere holding one's own on a 
circuit or charge, without aggressive work, 
and deep and broad Christian teaching and 
life. In order to this, "Take heed to thyself." 
"You will never happen to be a successful 
minister." Take heed to your experience that 
290 



Appendix 



it be renewed each day. Take heed to your 
spirit. Take heed to the gift of God that is 
in you. Also covet and seek new gifts. Take 
heed to your conversation, including your 
speech in social life, and general deportment 
at home and on the street. Teach only the 
Word of God. Do not . set up fictitious sins 
and fictitious virtues ; bind heavier burdens for 
yourself than for other people. 

Then after sound advice to circuit preachers 
there followed golden words on sermonizing, 
which apply to all preachers. As we were then 
making our first attempts at sermonic prepa- 
ration, these words burned themselves into our 
mind. Do not say : "Now I have got a stock 
of sermons; I have so many, and they will 
last me ever so long." I shall not go so far 
as to say, as I have heard one venerable man 
say, "Burn all your old sermons ;" but I would 
rather that than say, "Preach all your old ser- 
mons over again." Perhaps you could not do 
better than never to look at your old sermons 
again. You have a certain amount of time 
for study, and it is for you to see how you 
can lay it out to account, whether by warming 
up your cold, old thoughts, or using them for 
291 



Appendix 



a stepping-stone to new thoughts. Calculate 
which is best for yourselves and for your peo- 
ple. But you may say, "Are my old thoughts 
to perish?" No; if you are getting new ser- 
mons, all that is old will do again with new 
connections, with new setting, new life and 
vigor. But you will say, "I preached a ser- 
mon at such a time and it was blessed." Then 
preach it again; but remember, in proportion 
as you keep to the same words, it is less likely 
to be the same sermon. There is much more 
in a sermon than composition. If you put the 
composition of a youth of twenty-three upon 
a man of fifty it suits as ill as his boyish coat 
would. The people know it; it does not set 
well. Whereas if all the mere composition 
has been forgotten, and only the staple of 
thought remains, it will be like the man him- 
self, who every year is changed in every par- 
ticle, but somehow he remains the same man. 
Let a constant, living power be assimilating 
all your studies to the sacred life. The assimi- 
lation of a man's thoughts to the word, to the 
moment, to the people of this age are things 
that you can not fish out of the dead past; 
you must get them to-day. Go and make ser- 
292 



Appendix 



mons every week ; as sure as you give up mak- 
ing fresh sermons your growth as a preacher 
is over; you will never grow from that day; 
you will begin to decay and fall away. The 
more new sermons you make the more you 
will be able to make; the more texts you re- 
view and analyze and pass through your mind, 
the more you will be able to do ; and the more 
you willingly work the more easily you will 
do it. Go on, then; take heed to your- 
selves and the doctrine; continue in it, and if 
you do you will have your reward. Then fol- 
lowed joyful pictures of the fulfillment of the 
implied promise in the text, "Then thou shalt 
both save thyself and them that hear thee," 
which the faithful preacher will have in the 
hearts and homes made glad because salva- 
tion has come to them. A few words to the 
fathers of the Conference closed this wonder- 
ful charge, so full of practical suggestions and 
so endued with spiritual power. 

At this Conference, in 1867, Dr. Arthur was 
appointed to the newly-built college at Belfast, 
Ireland. The Missionary Society could ill 
spare him, but Ireland claimed and won back 
her own son. Here for four years he was not 

293 



Appendix 



merely an intellectual, but chiefly a spiritual, 
power among the young men under his care. 
In 1 87 1 he returned to London and remained 
honorary secretary of the Missionary Com- 
mittee, which he loved so well. His work as 
a public speaker had now about reached its 
end, but his pen he kept ever busy. In 1880, 
and again in 1891, he revisited America, where 
lives one of his daughters, who married Mr. 
Anderson Fowler, the well-known merchant 
of New York and Chicago. His presence was 
greatly missed at the Ecumenical Methodist 
Conference, in 1901, in London. He had been 
profoundly interested in each of the two pre- 
ceding Conferences. 

God did much for William Arthur in the 
way of natural gifts. His mind was clear and 
penetrating. He could see a subject in a help- 
ful aspect, and then think himself into and 
through that subject until he had it so well in 
hand as to give it to his fellow-men for their 
edification. His written and spoken addresses 
were always clear, never weighted with "the 
dignity of dullness." His bodily infirmities, 
such as loss of sight, instead of discouraging 
him, were turned to account. When he could 
294 



Appendix 



not write his thoughts on paper, he graved 
them into his mind and memory. He thus 
cultivated that wonderfully helpful power to 
a preacher, the mental method of preparation 
of discourse without putting pen to paper. 
His voice was clear and penetrating, though 
not loud. His gestures were few, but impress- 
ive. He always impressed his hearers as 
being genuinely sincere in every utterance. 
No man ever could charge him with duplicity. 

The secret of this great man's spiritual 
power is an open one. It was his personal 
goodness. He was most emphatically a spir- 
itual man. He was full of faith and of good 
works. It was the man back of the sermon, 
the speech, the book, which gave to each its 
power. It was God in the man. Surely Wil- 
liam Arthur was first and chief of all a Godly 
man. He was a God-possessed man. He was 
divinely enthused. Whether he wrote or 
spoke, he wrote or spoke for God to men. An 
ordinary business letter of his now before us 
reveals the busy, earnest student and economist 
of time. It is about a new book "from the pen 
of one Rev. John F. Hurst, M. A.," now 
Bishop Hurst. His consecration to God was 

295 



Appendix 



full and steadfast. It was purse-and-all as 
well as personal. From the first he gave very 
largely of his substance unto the Lord. He 
was not content to give one-tenth only. When 
his means were very limited, he did not excuse 
himself from giving to the point of great sac- 
rifice. He denied himself many things he felt 
he could not afford ; but he always felt he could 
not afford to refrain from giving unto the 
Lord. The foundation of years of bodily 
weakness and suffering was laid by an act of 
self-denial. He himself tells the story in a 
private letter to a friend. It was after "a pro- 
digious meeting" in Exeter Hall, in 1847. He 
writes : "When we got out it rained hard. I 
could not afford to take a cab. I mounted on 
the knife-board of an omnibus and had no 
umbrella. I was worn down with overwork, 
preaching and speaking more than was enough 
for two men of my strength, and doing the 
work of editor, which post I temporarily filled 
after J. S. Stamp broke down. So I caught 
a chill. And sitting there, where Smith sits, 
I turned to J. Gilchrist Wilson, who sat beside 
me, and said, 1 am spitting blood.' That was 
the beginning of my utter breakdown." 
296 



Appendix 

William Arthur was an example of a 
preacher working under and rising superior 
to bodily infirmities. Robert Hall, the prince 
of preachers, and Frederick W. Robertson, 
one of the greatest pulpit kings of the last cen- 
tury, and Charles H. Spurgeon, the latest of 
the great Puritans, all worked under, what 
would be to many, insurmountable bodily diffi- 
culties. Yet they toiled on, and while not 
glorying in their infirmities, they did triumph 
over them. Of all men the preacher needs a 
sound mind in a sound body; but if the latter 
is denied him, happy is he who makes the most 
of the little physical power at his command. 
The tabernacle which William Arthur put off 
was at its best but a weak earthly house, but 
a strong man lived in it, a white soul shone 
out from it. 

God has called back this, his great gift, from 
the Church on earth to higher ministries in the 
Church above ; but William Arthur, though no 
longer seen on earth, is a spiritual power in 
the Church and in the world to-day. There 
is still no more inspiring book for the preacher 
than the one so greatly blessed half a century 
ago— "The Tongue of Fire." 

297 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN METH- 
ODISM, COMPARED AND 
CONTRASTED 

Aix English Methodism is divided into 
seven parts. All American Methodism is di- 
vided into seventeen parts. Our comparisons 
are between the mother Church in Great Brit- 
ain and the daughter Church in America; 
that is, The Wesleyan Methodist Church of 
England and The Methodist Episcopal Church 
of America. 

For our readers it will not be necessary for 
us to make many contrasts. They will occur 
to us as we proceed. Strange as it may ap- 
pear to us, the legal title, "The Wesleyan 
Methodist Church," was not adopted until 
1887. Until then that great and influential 
body of English Christians were content to be 
called not a Church, but a Connection and 
a Society. These terms were used in the 
298 



Appendix 



Minutes of Conference, the hymn-books, and 
in all legal documents until, after agitation in 
1886-7, the- question of change of name was 
sent out to all the quarterly meetings of the 
Connection, and a majority voted for the 
change. Then the Annual Conference of 1887 
voted to have the name legally changed, and 
to stand no longer before the world as a mere 
Society, or a connection of societies, a sort 
of Annex to the National Church, but as an 
independent branch of the one Church of 
Christ in England and elsewhere. 

The heated controversy on this "Church" 
question was really amusing to at least one 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
which has been known as a Church from its 
beginning. Thus the daughter claimed to be, 
and was recognized as a " Church" more than 
a hundred years before the mother in Eng- 
land. It naturally followed that the houses of 
- worship in America are called churches ; 
whereas in England until this day the major- 
ity of them are still called "chapels," though 
some of them are most beautiful Gothic struc- 
tures, and are finely appointed. But gradu- 
ally "chapel" is dropping out of use, and Wes- 
299 



Appendix 



leyan Methodist houses of worship are being 
rightly named "churches." This change pro- 
voked much controversy, and called forth arti- 
cles from Church of England parsons on the 
old question of whether Methodism is a 
"Church or a sect." One Canon Hammond 
figured prominently on the Church of England 
side. He was ably answered by Drs. Rigg, 
Beet, and others of the Wesleyans. Modern 
Wesleyans in England seemed no longer dis- 
posed to "cower under an ancient shadow 
but to stand out before the world as a Church, 
and as a mother of Churches, whose oldest and 
largest daughter is the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of America. 

On the Constitution of the Wesleyan 
Methodist Church 

Until February 28, 1784, Wesley himself 
seems to have been both constitution and by- 
laws of all Methodism. He called his preach- 
ers periodically for conferences. He invited 
to them some Church of England clergy, and 
sometimes laymen, who sympathized with his 
work. After they had conferred together, he 
seems to have done just what seemed to him 
300 



Appendix 



best to do for the work. He himself made 
the appointments, saying to one go, and he 
goeth, and to another come, and he cometh. 

The immediate occasion of Wesley's giving 
to the society a legal constitution was a trus- 
tee controversy. Birstal trustees claimed the 
right to appoint preachers to their chapel after 
Wesley's death. With his usual foresight, 
Wesley saw this meant the wreck of Meth- 
odism in the near future. Being now eighty- 
one years of age, he concluded that it was time 
to secure the societies after his decease. He 
therefore selected from his preachers one hun- 
dred to form a Legal Conference. They were 
to meet once a year, fill vacancies, appoint a 
president and secretary, station the preachers, 
admit to the ministry, and generally oversee 
the societies. This is still the Legal Confer- 
ence of British Methodism. 

In the selection of those one hundred men, 
many were disappointed in not finding them- 
selves or their friends among the chosen ones. 
Three of these were: John Hampson, his son 
John Hampson, Jr., in England; and Joseph 
Pilmoor, in America. They all left Meth- 
odism. John Hampson became a dissenting 
301 



Appendix 



minister. John Hampson, Jr., entered the 
Church of England, became rector of Sunder- 
land, and wrote an unfriendly "Life of John 
Wesley" in three volumes. This was the first 
of the great lives of Wesley. It is now so rare 
as to be seldom seen. Pilmoor became a Prot- 
estant Episcopal clergyman in Philadelphia. 
He seems never to have entirely lost interest 
in Methodism, for until his death he contrib- 
uted yearly to the "Wornout Preachers* 
Fund." 

Documentary Constitutions 

The "Deed of Declaration," or "Poll Deed," 
as it is often called, was executed in 1784, the 
same year in which was organized the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church of America ; two great 
events in Methodist history. The Poll Deed 
also made the British Conference a legal body 
in 1784. "The Plan of Pacification" in 1795, 
and its completion in 1797, have been recog- 
nized by British Methodists as their "Magna 
Charta," and "Bill of Rights." The finishing 
touches, which completed the documentary 
Constitution of British Methodism, were "The 
Leeds Regulations" of 1797. 

302 



Appendix 



The Constitution of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, until 1808, was not clearly de- 
fined. Like the National Constitution of Eng- 
land, it was not specifically and definitely 
formulated in any given document. The first 
Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
printed in 1785, an original copy of which is 
before us, contains the Constitution of the new 
Church. In 1808 great advances were made 
towards a clearly-defined and easy-to-be-un- 
derstood Constitution. To meet a long-felt 
need, and after much consideration, in 190 1 
the form of a Documentary Constitution was 
sent to all the Annual Conferences for ap- 
proval, it being approved by 8,241 members 
out of 10,766 present and voting, or more than 
three-fourths of all. On May 6, 1902, the 
bishops proclaimed "the adoption of the New 
Constitution." This gave to American Meth- 
odism in 1902 what British Methodism has 
had since 1797. America was one hundred 
and five years behind British Methodism in the 
matter of a clearly-defined documentary con- 
stitution. Surely John Wesley's idea of the 
activity of the Americans when he said, 'The 
Americans leap like a flea, I am obliged to 

• 303 



Appendix 



creep," is incorrect in this particular. For 
one hundred and five years we crept along 
without a specific documentary constitution. 

Conferences 

British Methodism has no General Confer- 
ence. The Annual Conference both makes and 
operates its laws. It always meets in July, 
and lasts about sixteen days, including two 
Sundays. It must be held five days; it must 
not exceed three weeks. Much of the work 
of the Conference is prepared by committees, 
which begin to meet soon after the May 
Synods are over. The most important of 
these are the Home Mission Committee and 
the Stationing Committee. The last of the 
great committees to meet before Conference 
is that of the July Examination of Candidates 
for the Ministry. 

Fifteen centers have been selected for the 
Conference to meet in, the object being to 
place the Conference in those parts of Eng- 
land where its presence will tell most for the 
good of the cause. It meets twice in London 
to once elsewhere. Each center has its turn. 

The chief section of the Conference is the 

304 



Appendix 



Legal Hundred. All property is by the 
Poll Deed vested in it. This is the law- 
making section of the Conference. Members 
of the Legal Hundred fall out by becoming 
supernumeraries for more than two years. 
Vacancies are filled by those who have trav- 
eled fourteen years and upwards, on the nomi- 
nations of those who have traveled ten years 
and upwards; but those admitted on the 
ground of seniority are elected by the Legal 
Conference alone. It is considered a great 
honor to be elected into this body, especially 
when not on the ground of seniority. From 
this hundred the president of Conference is 
chosen. 

Not until Wednesday, August 8, 1900, 
could every preacher sent to Conference and 
in full connection vote for president. Before 
this only preachers who had been in full con- 
nection ten years and upwards could vote for 
president of Conference. He, with the secre- 
tary of the Conference, are now nominated 
one year before they enter their offices. This 
new departure was made in 1900. The Legal 
Hundred will elect those nominated by each 
preceding Conference. Thus these high offi- 

20 305 



Appendix 



cers are given time to prepare themselves to 
enter upon their work. 

All the preachers do not attend Conference. 
Many have never been present since their 
ordination. Its membership is composed of 
the hundred, and those who are elected by the 
quarterly Synods, to either the pastoral or rep- 
resentative sessions. Some are by vote simply 
permitted to attend. By this arrangement the 
circuit pulpits are not left vacant on Confer- 
ence Sundays. 

Since the introduction of Lay Representa- 
tion until 1901 there were practically three 
sessions of each Annual Conference, first and 
last the Pastoral Sessions, and sandwiched be- 
tween these the Representative Session. At 
first the laymen came up in the third week, 
then in the second. Since 1901 the Repre- 
sentative Session is held first, and the Pas- 
toral second. The laymen complained that 
matters had been settled before their voices 
had been heard, hence the change in the 
"Order of Sessions" by vote of the quarterly 
Synods in 1899- 1900. Thus British Meth- 
odist laymen have come to the fore. It is to 
this Annual Conference the Methodist Epis- 
306 



Appendix 



copal and some other branches of Methodism 
send fraternal delegates. This is the mother 
Conference of Methodism. The Wesleyan 
Methodist Church, not the Church of Eng- 
land, is our mother Church. 

Preachers' Appointments 

These are made by the Stationing Com- 
mittee, composed of preachers. Each Synod 
sends one representative to this committee, 
usually the chairman of the Synod. It meets 
before and during Conference. It issues three 
printed Drafts of Stations. The First Draft 
is sent over the country before Confer- 
ence assembles. Invitations are allowed, and 
provisional engagements of preachers to cir- 
cuits are made, and published sometimes even 
four years in advance. If an engagement can 
be approved, it is gladly done by the commit- 
tee. Then the "uninvited men" are placed. 
The Third Draft of stations is final. Against 
the first and second any preacher or circuit 
has the right to appeal. 

English Methodist preachers wonder at the 
docility of preachers in what they call Free 
America, submitting to be stationed by the 

307 



Appendix 



advice of even pious presiding elders, some of 
whose ways "are past finding out," and by un- 
known bishops, who with their own grips al- 
ready packed read off the appointments, then 
quickly depart by lightning express to parts 
unknown. They also pity their poor Amer- 
ican brothers, who by the first slow train go 
to their appointments, unable to sing, but mur- 
muring, "Other refuge have I none." 

But as far as we are able to judge, their 
system is attended with as many disappoint- 
ments as ours, but their preachers nearly al- 
ways know where they are going before the 
Conference closes. They are almost sure to 
go where printed in the second draft of sta- 
tions. 

The English Wesleyan ministry has only 
one order; that is, presbyters or elders, by 
which names they are but seldom called. 
Traveling preachers is the general name, 
to distinguish them from local preachers, 
who are never ordained. They have no 
Order of Deacons nor office of bishops. In- 
stead of bishops, a president is elected each 
year. This is the highest honor which can be 
conferred on an English Methodist preacher. 
308 



Appendix 



The term of probation for a traveling preacher 
is four years, after which, if all examinations 
are successfully passed, he is admitted into full 
connection, and ordained once for all. He is 
then allowed to marry, and not until then. 

It may be interesting to trace the steps of 
a preacher up to this point of ordination. He 
is then usually about twenty-five years of age. 
On his native circuit the lad showed zeal and 
ability as a Sunday-school teacher, or prayer 
leader at cottage meetings. He felt called to 
preach, and applied to his circuit preacher, or 
superintendent, for permission to try his wings 
for a flight to the local preacher's ranks. He 
was given a "note to preach," and sent to some 
small country appointment, with local preach- 
ers to hear him once in each place. They re- 
ported to the Quarterly Local Preachers' 
Meeting of the circuit. The report being fa- 
vorable, he was admitted on the Circuit 
Plan, or list of appointments for the quarter, 
on that particular circuit "on trial" for a local- 
preacher. For a year he was appointed with 
the other "locals," and then preached trial ser- 
mons before at least one of the traveling- 
preachers. He was examined on the doctrines 

309 



Appendix 



and polity of the Church before the Local 
Preachers' Quarterly Meeting. He passed, 
and was admitted to full plan as a local 
preacher. Called to enter the traveling ranks, 
he did his best in study and preaching as a 
local preacher and worker in the Church 
until, at the end of about two years, he offered 
himself a candidate for the traveling ministry. 
He then had to preach trial sermons before 
the ministers of the circuit, and get recom- 
mended by the Circuit Quarterly Meeting to 
the District Synod. There also he preached 
at least one trial sermon, and was again ex- 
amined. Being successful, he was recom- 
mended to the Annual Conference. To it he 
went, or rather to the Committee on Exami- 
nation of Candidates. More trial sermons, 
and another examination on general knowl- 
edge and on the doctrines and polity of Meth- 
odism. Having succeeded there, he was ac- 
cepted as a candidate, and placed on the 
President's List of Reserve. Up to this point 
he had lived on the self-supporting plan, 
and not received a penny for all his preach- 
ing. Now the Conference takes him in hand, 
and usually sends him to one of the "colleges" 
310 



1 



Appendix 



for training preachers, where he remains for 
three years. If without means, he has no care 
of support. He is fed, housed, and taught at 
the expense of the Church, and if he does 
well there and on his first circuits as a travel- 
ing preacher on trial, one of these three years 
is counted on his probation, which will bring 
him one year nearer the united state of matri- 
mony, if inclined that way. 

English Methodism lays hands suddenly on 
no man to make him a preacher. He must 
show piety and speaking ability to pass up 
through this long series of trials and exami- 
nations. After leaving the college he is sent 
out to a circuit as a "young man." Being 
single, he is not given a house nor nearly as 
much salary as a married minister receives. 
He is not supposed to be even "engaged," so 
the young ladies of the circuit usually have a 
fair chance at him. Very often the wealthier 
of them catch him, and the very next day after 
his ordination they are married. 

Why this celibacy? The Conference wants 
its candidates free from even engagements, 
that the young men may give their whole 
attention to preparation for the work of the 

3ii 



Appendix 



ministry. They think that "Kirjath-Sepher," 
the city of books, should be captured before 
a Methodist daughter should be bestowed. 
They also think that a man is more likely to 
secure a suitable helpmeet after than before 
his training for the ministry. The work being 
laid out in circuits, single men are necessary 
fully to man these at less pay than their mar- 
ried coadjutors. Thus they can help pay back 
the cost of their three years' schooling. Once 
admitted on the president's list of reserve, a 
capable and worthy young man need have no 
more care for support or place to study and 
preach. There being only one Conference, 
he has not even to seek that, but is at once sent 
to a circuit on leaving school. 

Circuits 

New York or Boston would be divided into 
circuits, with two or three city churches on 
each, and several country preaching places. 
If three city churches were on the circuit, two 
married preachers with houses, and probably 
one single preacher, would rotate in the city 
pulpits, and the local preachers would rotate 
in the country places. The local preachers, 
312 



Appendix 



giving their services, ten or twelve appoint- 
ments could be filled each week with only three 
or four paid preachers. Our own country 
work would be greatly helped by restoring the 
circuit system. Many now wholly neglected 
places would then have the gospel. The ten- 
dency during the last thirty years in England 
has been to reduce the size of the circuits, espe- 
cially in the cities. A few preachers have oc- 
cupied one pulpit most of their three years; 
but there the circuit system is absolutely neces- 
sary for the country work. The noble army 
of 20,288 local preachers, without money or 
price, heartily co-operate with the 2,238 travel- 
ing preachers in carrying on the work. It is 
an excellent training field for candidates for 
the ministry. But after thirty years' experi- 
ence in reducing the size of English circuits 
and making solitary stations, they are rebound- 
ing to larger circuits. More than thirty such 
solitary stations were joined to circuits at a 
recent Conference. 

The reasons assigned are worthy our most 
careful attention. The single charge is liable 
to have a weak officiary. Some men have to 
be placed in high offices on a charge, who 

3i3 



Appendix 



would not be intrusted with janitorial duties 
if the charge were a part of a strong circuit. 
The circuit gives larger choice of good timber 
for Official Boards. The charge is not so 
likely to be aggressive, but is liable to fear the 
loss of a few pew rents if another Church is 
started at even a suitable distance away. But, 
"What matter if my charge suffers a little for 
a little while, if I am a part of a circuit," says 
the circuit preacher, and each of the members, 
"We, the circuit, are one." On this plan each 
English preacher usually has one Church of 
the circuit under his special charge. In it he 
preaches once on Sunday and on a week night. 
One of his colleagues also preaches once a 
week. On special occasions the whole minis- 
terial force of the circuit is concentrated on 
one charge, and the Connectional spirit is in- 
creased. Are we suffering from lack of the 
Connectional spirit among us? Will the re- 
moval of the time-limit tend, unless we are very 
careful and very faithful, to cause the good 
Connectional spirit to take his flight from us, 
and leave us each in his own isolated grandeur 
or desolation, as the case may be? 

If the officiary of a circuit see the Lord's 

3H 



Appendix 



good money locked up in a chapel which has 
had its day of usefulness, and has ceased to be 
the power it once was because of changed 
environment, the Circuit Quarterly Meeting, 
made up of the best men from each of the 
chapels, considers the larger needs of the cir- 
cuit or the city, and, in the interest of wider 
Methodism, vote to sell out the old stand, and 
invest God's good money in new chapels, 
where new populations are crowding in. This 
could not be so easily done, if each chapel had 
its own independent officiary, who would natu- 
rally cling to the old stand, especially if it 
brought in a yearly income. 

We venture the opinion that the Methodist 
movement will cease to move if the Connec- 
tional spirit of the movement is allowed to de- 
part from among us. The Holy Spirit and 
the Methodist Connectional spirit, these two 
are the very vitals of Methodism in any land. 

Ordination 

As already stated, there is only one order 
of ministry in British Methodism. Only 
since 1836, when Dr. Wilbur Fisk was our 
delegate to the British Conference, have all 

315 



Appendix 



Wesleyan preachers been ordained by the lay- 
ing on of hands. Dr. Fisk had much to do 
with this great change. Until then the Con- 
ference merely received men into full connec- 
tion. All the earliest Methodist preachers on 
both sides of the Atlantic, excepting those whc 
came from the ministry of the Church of Eng- 
land, were unordained men. John Wesley 
ordained only thirty. The first six of these 
were for the work in America. On September 
r, 1784, he ordained Whatcoat and Vasey 
deacons, on September 2d elders, and on the 
same day he ordained Dr. Thomas Coke 
bishop. The next day he ordained three 
others, unnamed, for America. Two clergy- 
men, Dr. Thomas Coke, of the Church of Eng- 
land, and James Creighton, of the Church of 
[reland, assisted him. Mr. Creighton's daugh- 
ter came to New England, and became the 
wife of Senator Odiorne, of Boston. Her hon- 
ored dust lies in the old Central Burying- 
ground in Boston. Her father assisted John 
Wesley in these first ordinations of his preach- 
ers for America in 1784. Wesley afterwards 
ordained twenty-four for the British work. 
316 



Appendix 



At his death but few of his preachers were 
ordained men. Not until 1836 did ordination 
in the Wesleyan Methodist Church come to 
the preachers. It was then decreed to be "a 
standing rule and usage in future years." 
Even now certificates of ordination are given 
only to missionaries. Dr. Coke also intro- 
duced this custom into the British Conference. 
For fifty-two years the Methodist Episcopal 
Church had been ordaining her preachers be- 
fore her mother across the sea began to do it. 

Why did not English Methodism adopt the 
episcopal government? Certainly not be- 
cause Wesley did not prefer it, else why did 
he choose this form for American Methodism? 
Had Wesley separated himself from the 
Church of England, and formed a separate 
Church, instead of a "Society," he doubtless 
would have given England a Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. One of his ordinations for 
England proves this beyond a doubt. He or- 
dained Alexander Mather, not as elder only, 
but as superintendent or bishop. This must 
have been to oversee the work after his de- 
cease, and to ordain preachers. But at his 

3i7 



Appendix 



death they were afraid to launch out into the 
Episcopal sea, and therefore they hugged the 
Presbyterian shore, with the result that Brit- 
ish Methodism is presbyterian, not episcopal, 
in its polity. 

This we regard as a great mistake of the 
early English Methodists, and a great hin- 
drance to the progress of Methodism in Great 
Britain. Some far-seeing preachers saw this, 
and took steps toward making English Meth- 
odism episcopal. This was in 1794, only three 
years after W esley's death. This fact does not 
often appear in the histories. In the library 
of Headingly College there is a manuscript 
containing notes of a meeting of Bishops Coke 
and Mather, though neither was called a bishop 
in England, though both had been ordained 
bishops by Wesley. They and six others, viz., 
Thomas Taylor, John Pawson, Samuel Brad- 
burn, James Rogers, Henry Moore, and Adam 
Clarke, met secretly in Litchfield on April 2, 
1794, to launch Methodist episcopacy upon 
England. Resolutions were there prepared, 
and in due time were presented to the next 
Conference. But these resolutions were met 
with the impious refrain, "Down with the 

3i8 



Appendix 



bishops !" Benson did his best to oppose epis- 
copacy. Thus ended the honest attempt to 
carry out Wesley's idea of episcopacy for 
Methodism in England, when after his death 
she should become a separate Church. 

An attempt to introduce " separate chair- 
men," corresponding to our presiding elders, 
into English Methodism in 1894 stirred up the 
old question, and caused the cry of "No bish- 
ops" to be iterated and reiterated throughout 
British Methodism. The chairmen of English 
districts are also preachers on one of the cir- 
cuits of their districts. They receive no extra 
pay for their extra duties; the honor suffices. 
That John Wesley intended an episcopal 
Methodism for England is seen in the Prayer- 
book which he prepared for British Meth- 
odism, and which is exactly like the one he 
prepared for the Methodist Episcopal Church 
of America, excepting the prayers for the na- 
tional rulers. This "The Sunday Services of 
the Methodists," as it is called, has in it "The 
Form and Manner of Making and Ordaining 
of Superintendents, Elders, and Deacons." 
Later the English Methodists changed all this. 



3i9 



Appendix 

Lay Representation in English and 
American Methodism 

Lay representation in our General Confer- 
ence was legalized in 1872. The British Con- 
ference was six years later in admitting lay- 
men to its councils (1878). The steps which 
led to this on both sides of the Atlantic are 
briefly these: Wesley died in 1791, six and a 
quarter years after the organization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. New and per- 
plexing questions of administering without the 
help of the founder naturally arose. The agi- 
tation for lay representation began in this new 
Republic. 

The secession led off by O'Kelly and others 
in 1792, only about eight years after our or- 
ganization, was largely on clerical predomi- 
nance. It gave the country "The Republican 
Methodists." In 1820 the question, after 
nearly twenty years of comparative silence, 
was reopened in the columns of the Wesleyan 
Repository. The agitators were expelled. In 
1828 the General Conference was petitioned 
to admit laymen. This called forth Dr. 
Emory's great reply, which, from the anti- 
320 



Appendix 



laymen side, was most masterly. But Dr. 
Stevens says this reply was really written by 
that great layman, Dr. Thomas Bond. In 
1828 came the Methodist Protestant seces- 
sion, largely on this question. 

In 1856 that imperturbable Boston sheet, 
Zion's Herald, had the audacity to reopen the 
question, and renew the agitation. The Na- 
tional Magazine and the Christian Advocate 
took it up, and in i860 The Methodist, pub- 
lished in New York City, was founded chiefly 
to advocate it. The result was, the question 
was submitted to the Annual Conferences in 
1868. They voted for it, and the General 
Conference of 1872 sanctioned it, fixing the 
ratio of representation at not more than two 
for each Conference. Soon arose the ques- 
tion of Equal Lay Representation, with the 
glad result at the General Conference, 1900, 
of numerical equality. May 2, 1900, will go 
down into American Methodist history as a 
red-letter day. 

Our English mother lagged behind us in 
this great reform. It was six years after we 
admitted laymen to our councils before the 
British Conference did the same. Their date 
21 321 



Appendix 



was 1878. But they began with equal repre- 
sentation. However, they had been paving 
the way for it for many years. The Kilham 
secession of 1796, four years after our O'Kelly 
rebellion, was almost exclusively for greater 
lay privileges. The outcome was the Meth- 
odist New Connection, a very respectable, but 
not large body, in England. They proceeded 
by elections to put laymen into almost every 
department of their Church and its work. The 
mother Church moved more cautiously. In 
1 80 1 she gave circuit stewards a right to at- 
tend the district meetings and advise in finan- 
cial matters. This was the thin end of the 
entering lay wedge. In 1803 a Committee 
of Privileges was appointed to "guard our 
religious privileges in these perilous times." 
In 181 5 laymen were introduced by selection 
of the preachers into the Missionary Commit- 
tee, then into the Home Missionary and the 
Chapel Committees. In 1861 was organized 
a Committee of Review, into which the prin- 
ciples of direct representation was introduced. 
Thus step by step English Methodist laymen 
moved up to the doors of the Conference, until 
in 1878, six years later than with us, the Con- 
322 



Appendix 



ference doors opened to them in a Represen- 
tative Session, of two hundred and forty min- 
isters and two hundred and forty laymen. 
They began with equal representation, which 
point we reached in 1900, just twenty years 
later. 

The English lay delegates are now increased 
to three hundred. They are composed of one 
of the treasurers of the Conference commit- 
tees, who are members ex-ofhcio, and until 
1900 the Conference chose eighteen others, six 
each year, for three years. This was when the 
number was only two hundred and forty. It 
now elects forty-eight in all. The others are 
chosen by the District Synods, according to 
their membership. For instance : the first 
London Synod in 1900 elected a ministerial 
representative to the Stationing Committee, 
six ministers to the Pastoral Conference, 
and six ministers to the Representative Ses- 
sion, and nine laymen to the Representative 
Session. In these Synods ministers and lay- 
men vote separately on some questions. There 
are forty-four districts in the British Confer- 
ence, and each has its own Synod. The next 
British Conference was composed of six hun- 

323 



Appendix 



dred members, three hundred lay and three 
hundred ministerial. They first sat together in 
Representative Session, and did such busi- 
ness together as did not belong to the pastoral 
relations. Afterwards the Pastoral Session 
was held to attend to all pastoral matters and 
to legalize all approved measures of the whole 
Conference. Thus the selection of laymen by 
ministers for counsel in England has led to 
their election into the Conference. The new 
century began with laymen sitting in equal 
numbers with the pastors in both English and 
American Methodism, though American Meth- 
odism lagged behind just twenty-two years 
in the matter of equal representation. 

We think that every careful student of early 
Methodism will conclude that, at the first, ex- 
clusive ministerial leadership, if not necessary, 
was at least desirable. But very few remain 
on either side of the ocean who do not rejoice 
in the democratizing of the Methodisms in 
their present advanced stages of progress. 
Many firmly believe that a great need of Meth- 
odism is more laymen in our councils, and 
more elective privileges for our laymen and 
preachers. 

324 



Appendix 



English Methodism and Education 

British Methodism owns no university nor 
"college" of the New England grade. The 
term "college" is very loosely applied to many 
of their schools. The nearest approach to a 
proper American College of Liberal Arts is 
the Leys School, at Cambridge, of which 
the late Dr. W. F. Moulton was the principal. 
This is a first-class secondary school, where 
men are fitted for the Universities of Cam- 
bridge, Oxford, or Durham. Some of the 
students proceed so far, by special tutoring, 
as to take the examinations for degrees at the 
London University, which is only an examin- 
ing, and is not a teaching Faculty. 

Wesley College, at Sheffield, and a similar 
one in Taunton, are good secondary schools. 
None of these are owned or wholly controlled 
by the Conference. English Methodism has 
no institution empowered to grant degrees. 
She has a large share in elementary education, 
which is equal to our primary and grammar 
school work. This day, 159,716 scholars are 
on her rolls, with 128,992 average attendance. 
She receives help from the government, as 

325 



Appendix 



do other denominations who do this same kind 
of school work. The Board School system 
is now sharply competing with the denomina- 
tional schools. The "colleges," such as West- 
minster Training College, London, are "nor- 
mal schools," where teachers are trained for 
Wesleyan elementary day-schools. The "col- 
leges" for ministerial training at Richmond, 
Didsbury, Headingly, and Hands worth — all 
these take candidates accepted for the Presi- 
dent's List of Reserve, just where they are, 
and teach them. It is not uncommon for 
some of the teachers to be found teaching 
young men, with preaching gifts, English 
grammar and arithmetic. The standard for 
candidates now is being raised. Here and 
there may be found a man who has taken a 
degree at Oxford, Durham, or London. Such 
is a "rara avis" among the candidates. A 
"college" for young preachers is a mixture of 
a Conference seminary and a school of the- 
ology. Three years is the full course, what- 
ever may be the starting point. The staff of 
teachers is small ; one man being "classical 
tutor" from Greek alphabet on ; another being 
"theological tutor." With us his work would 
326 



Appendix 



be divided among three professors. The men 
sent out are usually better speakers than schol- 
ars. If they could not talk fairly well, they 
could never have gotten along so far as to get 
into one of these colleges. 

English Methodist ministers with degrees are 
few, unless they got them from Scotland, Ire- 
land, or America. When an Englishman has a 
degree he nearly always flies it after his name. 
It is usually also put upon his tombstone, when 
he is ready for one. The British Conference 
will not recognize a degree until a committee 
has investigated the case, and learned where 
the man got it from, and how. If all is satis- 
factory, it appears in the Conference Minutes 
and everywhere else. Our Wesleyan Univer- 
sity has doctored several leading Wesleyan 
preachers of England, from Jabez Bunting 
down to W. T. Davison. English Methodist 
preachers usually ridicule American degrees. 
They too often judge them by the bogus col- 
leges which have been exposed for granting 
them; yet few things would please the aver- 
age English Methodist preacher of our ac- 
quaintance more than an honorary degree 
which the committee of his Conference would 



327 



Appendix 



recognize. It would have a monetary value 
for him when he needed a new appointment. 
Their greatest living educator is Dr. Rigg; 
scientist, is Dr. Dallinger; ecclesiastical law- 
yer, John S. Simon ; their greatest missioner, 
is S. F. Collier. The late Dr. W. F. Moulton 
was the modern Adam Clarke of British Meth- 
odism. Hugh Price Hughes was their great- 
est reformer. English Methodist preachers 
are well educated; but they are largely self- 
educated men. 

English Preaching 

The Methodists, like most of the English 
preachers whom we have heard and read, ex- 
pound the Scriptures more fully and frequently 
than do the Americans. They seem to think 
that the best way to pound the devil is to ex- 
pound the Word of God. Whilst in such a 
great number of pulpiteers there are doubtless 
many who give the people simply "commen- 
tary stuff" and "book illustrations," yet a 
glance at our libraries will at once convince 
us that some of the best homiletical matter we 
have is from English pens. We have observed 
less "funny" preaching, and more of the truly 
328 



Appendix 



evangelistic, in England than we see reported 
in the American Monday papers. Purely top- 
ical preaching is rare, topical expository seems 
to be increasing; but the preachers seem 
bound "to preach the Word." Unpalatable 
truths are not omitted from English Methodist 
pulpits. 

Much open-air preaching is done. When a 
preacher or Church seems threatened with that 
dire disease, consumption, preachers and peo- 
ple often try the open-air treatment. Meth- 
odism was born in the open air. O, if some 
of our weak Churches and weakly pastors 
only knew "what is in the air !" We once 
heard a man preaching to a large audience at 
eleven o'clock at night. It was on the edge 
of the sidewalk, on Mile End Road, London. 
He and the people were having a good time. 

Benevolences 

Foreign Missions. — We boast of the million 
and about a third dollars raised in 1902 for 
missions, which with us includes Home and 
Foreign. More than eighty years ago the 
English Wesleyan Methodists separated their 
societies. They now give about as much to 

329 



Appendix 



Foreign Missions as we do, though their mem- 
bership is only 496,710, about one-sixth as 
large as ours. English Methodist Foreign 
Missions are in the front rank, and English 
Methodists are front-rank givers for this 
cause. 

Their Worn-out Preachers 3 Fund. This 
supplements the amounts the superannuates 
receive from the Annuitant Society, into 
which they have paid each year since they 
joined the Conference. This assures them a 
fairly comfortable support in their old age. 
Though the English salaries are small, com- 
pared with our larger salaries ($600 a year 
being about the minimum, and $1,250 and 
house being about the maximum), yet we think 
that English Methodist preachers are among 
the best cared for set of men in all that "right 
little, tight little island." The late Archbishop 
Temple rather prided himself that he knew 
a good deal of the working of Methodism. 
He told the tale himself of his interview with 
a candidate for reordination when he was 
Bishop of Exeter. The young fellow was a 
Wesleyan minister, not a distinguished one. 

330 



Appendix 



Bishop Temple put him through his pacings 
after this fashion : 

"Mr. So-and-So, as a Wesleyan minister 
you are always sure of an appointment?" 

"Yes, my lord." 

"You are always paid your stipend. When 
you marry your stipend is increased, is it not ?" 
"Yes, my lord." 

"If you have children you receive allowances 
for them; and payment for their education; 
or you can send them to the Methodist schools. 
Is not that so?" 

"O, yes!" 

"If you are sick and disabled you are cared 
for; if you become old and infirm there are 
two funds from which you can get help; if 
you die your widow receives an annuity: is 
not that so ?" 

"Yes, my lord." 

"Well," said the bishop, "I hope you have 
considered all that, for we have no such ar- 
rangements." 

The upshot was that Bishop Temple refused 
to reordain him, and he had to get some other 
bishop to do the work, and relieve Methodism 

33i 



Appendix 



of a man that it really did not need. The arch- 
bishop's position was not an easy one. He did 
his work well, and he has gone to his grave 
with the hearty respect of the people of at least 
one other Church than his own. 

English Methodism and Reforms : A 
Glance 

Temperance. — Thirty years ago temperance 
sermons in W esleyan pulpits would have given 
great offense. Much progress has been made 
since then. In 1885 there were only 308 Wes- 
leyan Temperance Societies in Great Britain, 
and their number was then decreasing. De- 
cember 13, 1885, was appointed as Temper- 
ance Sunday, and preachers were requested to 
preach on the subject. Very many failed to 
do so. But the Conference now has a temper- 
ance evangelist, and a large number of the 
preachers who,, unlike John Wesley, are total 
abstainers. Such men as the late Rev. Charles 
Garrett and Dr. T. B. Stephenson have done 
noble fighting against the drinking habits of 
old England. Unfermented wine is now being 
introduced into Wesleyan communion services. 

In social and political reforms English. 

332 



Appendix 



Methodism has been led to the fore by such 
men as the Rev. S. F. Collier, of Manchester, 
and the late Hugh Price Hughes, of London, 
with their great and ever-growing greater 
Forward Movement missions. The finest In- 
stitutional Church work we have seen or read 
of is being done in the Manchester and Sal- 
ford Methodist Mission, led by S. F. Collier. 
The net increase for the year 1901-2 of 8,243 
members, with 156 candidates for the ministry, 
is largely the direct and indirect results of 
work done in these and other such evangel- 
istic centers. 

English Methodist statistics are very reli- 
able. Class-meeting attendance is still a test 
of membership. Unless each member has his 
new class ticket each quarter he is dropped, or 
entered as "ceased to meet." In 1901-2, 
21,451 "ceased to be members." Each mem- 
ber pays his weekly class money, and his quar- 
terage for his ticket, or shows the reason why 
not. Oliver Wendell Holmes said concerning 
some statistics, they are "like greens, they 
shrink dreadfully in boiling." American 
Methodists are now boiling down the statistics 
of their membership. We hope soon to know 

333 



Appendix 



the real numerical strength of American Meth- 
odism. 

English Methodism was late in organizing 
her young people into a united society. Their 
Wesley Guild is very like the Epworth League, 
and would never have come into existence but 
for it and the Christian Endeavor Society. 
They would not adopt the American name ; but 
they work ' our methods with increasing suc- 
cess. 

In many of the leading Churches the "Book 
of Common Prayer," or "The Sunday Service 
of the Methodists," is used in the morning 
services. They sing more stanzas than Amer- 
icans. Their services are, at least outwardly, 
much more reverential. The congregations 
are generally very much larger than the mem- 
bership of the Churches. The class-meeting 
test keeps many from joining the Church who 
are really Christians. It is comparatively easy 
to gather a large congregation in England. 
It does one good to see the crowds wending 
towards and pouring out of the churches on 
Sundays. 

The social status of Wesleyan Methodism 
334 



Appendix 



is high. She has wisely followed her people 
up as they have ascended the social scale, and 
has adapted her services, methods of work, 
and of worship to the people as they have 
grown wiser and richer. Whilst she does not 
neglect the poor, she is equally careful to pro- 
vide for the rich, and also for the more cul- 
tured of her people. The Methodist social 
strata of England may be spoken of roughly 
as: bottom layer, the Bible Christians; then, 
the Primitive Methodists; next to these, the 
United Methodist Free Churches ; above them, 
the Methodist New Connection. Above these, 
and striking right down through all the strata, 
is the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which is 
the mother of universal Methodism. 



335 



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